Before we dive in, here's another show you can enjoy in the True Story FM Family of Entertainment podcast.
Oh there you are.
I was hoping i'd cross paths with you today. I'd like to invite you to visit The Story Well. It's a place where storytellers of all stripes gather. From improp performers to authors, screenwriters to playwrights. We all tell stories, but we're not here to talk about craft. We're here to make something out of nothing. Each episode of the podcast, your host that's me sits down with a creative person and based on a series of random prompts, we get
elements that we make into a story. Will it be a noir novel about King Kong or a Broadway musical about JFK? Even We don't know. That's the fun part. But what do you get out of this besides a good time with fun people? Simple? The idea is then yours. That's right. Whatever we come up with, we give it away for anyone to use however they'd like, no strings attached. It's like each episode come with a free prize. Inside Story Well with Kyle Olson, we'll save you a seat at the table.
Hey, movie lovers, I'm Pete Wright and I'm Andy Nelson. We are the hosts of the Next Reel Film Podcast. If you're passionate about films like we are, you'll love our show. Each week, we dive deep into a movie.
Discussing everything from the story and performances to the cinematography and score.
Not to mention budgets and awards.
We have covered iconic series like Francis Hercoppolas The Godfather trilogy, examining themes of power, family, and the dark side of the American dream.
We've explored the works of groundbreaking directors like Catherine Bigelow, discussing her mastery of tension.
We've looked at heist films, great car chases, great years in film, couples on the run.
And more.
Our discussions go beyond the surface, examining what makes each film tick. We believe that when the movie ends, the conversation begins.
And we'd love for you to join that conversation. Find the Next Reel Film Podcast on your favorite podcast app or at thenextreel dot Com.
The Next Reel.
When the movie ends, our conversation begins.
Hello and welcome to this episode of the Superhero Ethics Podcast. Today, myself and co host from Back in the Day special guest extraordinary mister Paul Hoppey, are here to talk about Cobra Kai Season six, Part two, the show that keeps jumping the shark and finding new sharks to jump, and every time we think it's gone truly ridiculous, it says, hold my beer.
What do you think?
I let me just start by saying, we're just gonna jump right in. We're gonna have lots of spoilers. As far as I can tell, a lot of people really love this section of the show, this part two of a season.
I enjoyed a lot of it.
Okay, okay, okay, sure, sure, but not in quite the same like, oh this is quality television way that I might have enjoyed season one. We've not talked, we've actually shared much of our opinions about this. I think though we're gonna be most on the same page. But let me just say, Paul, so full spoilers, Paul, what's your kind of overall thought?
And for those who haven't seen it.
Don't worry, we'll give you kind of a summary, but just Paul, part two of a sure.
So, first of all, it's master Paul Hoppy. I don't like the word mister in general. And we're talking about martial arts. So you know, we're just gonna We're just gonna start there because half of what I have to say is like as a martial artist, very mixed feelings here because there were some spectacular displays of athleticism and technique.
Most of it wasn't karate, and I'm pretty sure it is actually a karate tournament or kr they but like, you know, you've got a Brazilian team doing kapowera, You've got just just peep there, everyone's just doing. Most of them are doing taekwondo, Like, let's face it, as a as a taekwondo practitioner, like I know a bunch of them, like they trained in taekwondo. You know, I don't mean
I know them. I just mean, like, so on the martial arts front, super not faithful to like what I would want to see out of a show about martial arts. But in terms of the actual choreography and stunts, some of it was awesome for sure.
Yeah, I will say they to add to the cast, they got a couple of very well known martial artists, some of who have been already been trying to like develop acting careers. Others were just well known martial artists. They forgot to give them characters with any development besides two two diventions. But you know, there were some great martial arts scenes.
Yeah, So as a writer, I felt that, you know, like brand is it Brandon h Lee? I think, right, yeah, I'm just I know he has a middle initial. Okay, it's h Brandon h Lee. And what's your name? Reina Valandingham?
I think I tried to listen to a couple of times.
If I haven't heard any interviews or anything, but are both outstanding martial artists and totally bring it on the mat. As far as acting chops, I don't even know, Like just the writing did not give them really anything to work with. And for other characters, seeing you know, characters who I've seen be well acted at points, I just felt like the writing was like, you know, you talked
about jumping the shark. I feel like I always felt like the series was kind of there, but I do think it was kind of They jumped to the balcony railing at the end of season two, but here I think they jarked. They jumped the shark Nado like.
See I actually am gonna say something else.
I think jump the shark is something that occurred because in an episode of like late seasons of Happy Days, the character of Fonzie was skiing and jumped over a shark, and that people like this show has just gone and so for decades now, the term jumping the shark has been used from when the show has just gone far beyond any ability to call it realistic in any or anything. I think it's time to retire the term jump in I'm with you, I don't think. I don't think shows
jump the shark anymore. I think they fall on their own knife. Because a character at the end of this in one of the most ridiculously convoluted, idiotic chains of events, presumably dies or possibly just massively by attempting a running jumping attack while holding a knife, misses and falls on his own knife. So that's my new term. The show didn't jump the shark. This has not only dumped the shark, this has created a new term.
Yeah, and because it's it's self inflicted, like the injuries that this show does to itself. I felt when when the whole tournament, like I guess we're starting with the end, right.
Well, what why don't I actually give a plot?
Sure, yeah, so go for it.
Try try.
So we are at the Setai Tai Kai, which is I believe we're supposed to think in this part the greatest karate tournament in the world. It was referred to at times in Part one, I believe as a fighting tournament, so some of the like everyone fighting more in line with their national fighting style, although the Irish team didn't break beer pints and fight with those, so it's not
quite that. But now it's described as a tournament, and we learned that all of our heroes are on Miagi Doo, Danny and Johnny are leading the team together, but Torri has betrayed the team and shown up with Cobra Kai, and Cobra Kai is now being led by John Crease as always. And also the Dragon Lady forgive me. I mean her character does have a name, if a very one dimensional characterization.
The term dragon lady kind of offensive, and I know it's intended to refer to a role type that is offensive, but I actually think it's I think it's time to retire the term. The way I think Mary Sue is not really a constructive thing. But I know, the point being that the character doesn't really get a ton of depth. But I do actually feel like there's a little bit more there here.
There's much more than some other characters.
Yeah, what I meant is that like she falls into a lot of the stereotype of the sexy, villainous Asian woman, uh and how she's presented.
But yeah, I agree that probably a poor term use of my my part.
My apologies there, but so so, and we're trying to figure out why Torri is doing this, and everyone's upset. No one's acknowledging what we talked about h in terms of the last part where we thought that maybe actually she should have been allowed to decide how she wants to deal with the grief of the death of her mother. No one's taking accountability for that. We're just mad at her.
And we're starting this great fighting tournament with tea from teams from all over the world, primarily Europe, which we see which we all know is a hotbed of karate and martial arts, although there are there is the team
from mostly Korea. There's I had not realized this until recently, but the Iron Dragons, which the team that becomes important is from Hong Kong, even though I don't think either of the main stars of it are Chinese themselves, but we have fights, and some of the fights, right lewis Tan, right,
we have some really interesting fights. A lot of them are these kind of group fighting challenges that are designed where it's like two on two or it's like a tag in tag out thing, or it's like knock people off of these kind of high rise things.
American gladiators.
It's basically American ladiers with karate.
It does allow for cross gender fighting, which we kind of talked before about like kind of you know, it being interesting how it was divided, So it was kind of fun that that was allowed. And it turns out that one of the teams that everyone's really threatened by is the Iron Dragons, which is this team that I risually thought was from Barcelona themselves, which is where it's
all taking place. Apparently the Barcelona Tourist Board I think like paid them to come because they're just lots of shots that remind you that Barcelona is a really great city. The training montage involves them going to all of these wonderful tourists spots. Ye that I was just tourist. Bud got the money's worth. But anyway, so fight fight fight. Iron Dragons are now a threat. Cobra cause the threat. Danny LaRusso gets kidnapped and locked in a cage.
What are we doing? What are we doing?
Because he's chasing down the legacy of Miyagi. He assumes that Chris is doing this, but it turns out it's not Crease.
It's our old friend.
Because no one stays dead, no one stays in jail, no one ever stays off the board.
For long John, Long John Silver, it's just Silver. I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't even care. I don't even want to remember his name.
It's just Silver. He's back.
There's apparently like an Asian guy who is working as kind of like a henchman for Cobra Kai in the second or third movie and Danny Russo beats him up.
He's back as as a thug for Silver.
Terry Silver, Silver.
Terry Silver, that's it, Terry Silver, Thank you chosen his back?
The guy who uh Janny fall in season two and sorry in the second Karate Kid movie. Like lots of people are back Shenanigan's happen. Teenagers try to date each other, try to keep their.
Relationships, arguably sexually assault one another.
Arguably sexually assault one another. The questions of who is drunk and who is not, and who can give consent is raised, but the show doesn't seem to understand that it's raising them in a way that's kind of problematic.
The show doesn't seem very interested in it.
No, none at all, although I think we'll talk about that.
Could come back. We'll see, I guess.
And just get introduced to a lot of these characters who are very one dimensional. So one of those characters is Zara played by Raina Valringham. I think incredible martial artist,
and she might be a very good actress. I have no idea, because her character is a mean girl, like, not a well developed character like Regina George, just a straight up mean girl who's also an influencer who spends all of her time when she's not fighting, being very flirty and being on Instagram or some Instagram like thing. Because she's an influencer talking down everyone around her.
Which the actress actually is as well. Apparently she has like five million followers right like TikTok and Instagram or what.
Right, But I don't think most of her content revolves around like can she steal the boyfriend of this guy from this?
Yeah?
Yeah, I hope not. I think it's I think it's martial arts related, you know.
I think she knows the modeling and stuff and that looks very good at it. So but yeah, so there's a whole plot line there, and Robbie uh drinks the first time and gets very drunk and then wakes up in her room and kind of she kisses him on the way out, and he kind of kisses her back, but it's kind of just out of it.
He literally says, I don't remember what happened last night?
Right right?
In terms of that, I mean, I'm saying when he kisses her, she he doesn't like push her away or that, but he definitely seems kind of like very confused about things, which again the kind of like did she take advantage him while drunk? That certainly seems the implification here, and I hope that that's brought in some way, but not sure. But of course, with perfect timing, Tori sees that happen Torri had broken up with him, but sort of but not really but yes, but no, but she's upset about
it because they're only taking a break. It all sounds ridiculous and convoluted. Yes, that's the point. Meanwhile, also, the character played by Brandon initial league aish Lee, thank you. He's the one who plays the guy from Korea, right, Hongkan fist.
I don't know whether it literally means fist in that particular instance of it, if that's the idea, but yeah.
I think And again, if the writers to decide how to write Zara, just watch the movie Mean Girls a lot to write his character. I think they just watched like nineteen eighties high school movies and high school bullies a lot because he's basically playing Johnny.
So they watched the Karate Kid.
Yeah. All he does is be like, oh, I am better than you. I will bet my hotel room against yours.
I don't yeah, I don't know why that's what you would go to wager, Like what, There's so many other things to bet.
He flirts with Tory, and he mocks the people who he beats by being an incredible martial artist. And meanwhile, the other guy from the Iron Dragons team kind of has a crush on Sammy, but Sammy of course has a boyfriend, and then he gets really mad at the boyfriend because apparently teenagers aren't capable of having.
Any kind of rational emotions in these TV shows.
Yeah, I mean, in fairness, Yeah, I.
Think there's a little bit more rationality possible, but.
It's it's just not always there.
It makes again, the show just feel incredibly unbalanced because half the show is, oh my gosh, can we win this high school tournament?
Who do we like? Who do we want to date?
And the other half is mister Miyagi killed someone right in the tournament way back in the day, and of the is getting kidnapped and Crease wants to kill Silver with a knife and then said knife exactly.
Yeah.
So so there's a couple other plot twists there's uh So, it just felt incredibly lazy writing throughout the entire thing, like every bad stereotype you could go through all the way too. There's a Russian team that because Cobra Kai originally gets eliminated but then has to get brought back
and how do they do that? The Russian team is caught taking performance enhancing drugs, Yeah, which causes the Russians to go utterly ape shit, and right when the actual one on one matches are supposed to start, the Russian coach knocks out the German head of the Federation and then just all hell breaks loose, and honestly, I was gonna say, jump the shark has been replaced with a royal rumble on at the Psychai Tai Chai until the kid fell.
On the knife.
So that's the plot summary.
Yeah, so starting at the end, not the end end, but the last episode. I actually when they were just like, okay, forget all this, We're just gonna have everybody fight everybody, I was like, Ah, they've accepted what they are, you know where I remember one of the ridiculous fight scenes that maybe it was the Larusso's house, I'm not sure. And at the end of one season, one of the season finales, I remember we might have had a split feelings about it, I'm not sure, but I was kind
of like, they're just fighting. That's fine, Like this is where we are, you know, like instead of having these little individual reasons for everybody wanting to fight each other and like there's these like rational things, it's just like all right, just everybody fight, you know, and it's like, that's just how they're going to end a season, or I guess in this instance, that's how they're going to end a you know, a half season, third season. What
are they doing? What are we doing with these part seasons? Just call it another seas.
Like I go, stretching it out as much as.
We started this. I know, Stranger Things did Breaking Bad. I blame Breaking Bad. That's the first one I remember.
No, I think it actually started because the writers strike, not the recent one, but the one, uh like fifteen years ago, because that caused a lot of like part one, part two of seasons for like legit reasons, and then after that a lot of people were like, oh, hey, that was kind of cool.
Double the marketing, double the money.
Maybe maybe that was like almost twenty years ago now, right that writer's strike, I think, I think so, yeah, But yeah, I know Breaking Bad used the we're gonna split season six into two half seasons, and it's like, why isn't it season six and seven? And also, you know, going back further, I blame Quentin Tarantino with Kill Bill one and two. But whatever, anyway, I digress. So I
actually once they just started fighting each other. I was like, all right, whatever, like it's cool, Like let's just watch some stunts, you know. And so that, like I was like, this is obviously ridiculous, but at least it's ridiculous without
a bunch of dialogue, you know. And one part that you glossed over in the or that you you left out of the extraordinarily unnecessarily complicated plot was the whole thing with Devin uh not poisoning, but like drugging Kenny basically so that he had to yeah, and then admitting what she'd done. And Kenny was already on the way to come back because Miguel and Johnny were gonna go back because Carmen was maybe dying, and then she was just fine and was like, oh no, go back and
do karate boys. And actually that maybe had some of my favorite moments, even though the whole thing was ridiculous, just like the Johnny and Miguel dynamic I do believe is the heart of this show, you know. And and so it was like we get maybe five minutes of what made this show worth watching to me in the
first place. But but then Devin and Kenny kind of like they're kind of cool with each other, and then they fight together, not against each other, but together as a team against a bunch of people, like going up levels in hystericcase. I don't I don't even know what was happening, like in terms of like why is who
going where? Or whatever? Like, I thought it was cool that at least they gave those two characters a little bit of their two in terms of, like, you know, I wasn't crazy about the way they'd handled either of them, and just at least letting them kind of have that fight there I thought was cool. Not like total redemption or anything for the show or the writers, but like that was nice and I.
Did like that.
So, yeah, as Paul said, we find out that Karmen's been pregnant this whole time. Carmen is Miguel's mother. Also, I think she's now married to Johnny Ort least certainly there.
There were either engaged, sure that they have a kid coming in Yes, right, I mean.
She's right, he's the father, clearly, and everyone's happy about that, and she gets like something happens. They get a call from the doctors, and so Miguel and Johnny jump on a plane and then as you said, get there and then go right back, which is, by the way I looked it up, Barcelona to LA that's fourteen hour flights.
That's long.
I mean fourteen hour flights in like three days, and that is in great condition to keep fighting question Mark.
Yeah, I can say I've flown from New York to LA and from New York to Norway and it takes a day, you know, it's like and I mean I've flown to Korea and then usually we have a day before we do training because if you try and train the day after a thirteen hour flight, you're not going to feel good. No, it's just not going to feel good. It's probably easier when you're eighteen, but I mean I was like early to mid twenties when I did that, and it was, Yeah, your muscles get tight when you sit still.
Airline seats have gotten a lot Worseman, he does get to fly first class one way. Yeah, and it's kind of funny the way that's all done. But yeah, So the point is when Miguel, we think is going to be taken off the board, there's a question of who's going to fight next, right, And I was really.
Worried they were going to give it to Anthony.
Oh, Anthony is the little brother of Samantha another LaRusso, and he's learned to be okay at fighting, and in this world, it seems that makes you world class.
Yeah yeahh six months of training, you're good, Go fight the world champion.
It doesn't, though, And I did really like, like even before we got that scene with Kenny and Devin, just the fact that Kenny was the one who was chosen.
Yeah, and it wasn't even a question. It was just like, oh, yeah, well Kenny, of course Kenny, right.
Yeah, exactly, and they do.
Also he gets some kind of a nice moment with Anthony, although once again missus LaRusso proving herself not to be Mother of the Year.
Yeah, in my mind it was. It was pretty weird.
But she basically makes Anthony apologized for something he very clearly didn't do, and then his response is that he's gonna poison himself with laxatives as well in solidarity, which I don't get.
I mean, I think he's he's taking responsibility for having bullied Kenny because he did. That was real, He bullied Kenny. He didn't do this one last thing, But it's not that he should apologize for doing that thing, but that thing did lead to Kenny getting bullied more and so taking responsibility for the bullying he did and saying, Hey, I understand that what I did wasn't right and I can't undo it, but I'm going to do something horrible to myself that you can then make fun of me for.
I'm going to embarrass myself in a way that you know, is basically trying to kind of you know, I'm not gonna maybe take a video of it and post it on social media. But like I I kind of appreciated that, Like I actually sort of thought that made I feel like maybe Henny would have been like, all right, all right, we're good, We're good. You don't have to actually drink the whole thing. But like I mean, I guess he was pretty mad still, So see.
I actually thought he kind of did what.
It was funny is the Kennedy base, Like, while Anthony is saying this, Kenny takes the phone call from Devin and finds out that it was her. So Kenny is like, an, yeah, He's like whatever, d Yeah, And I was worried We're gonna get a lot more about Anthony doing that. Yeah, he'd already had a couple other stuff of middle school not high school humor, but fair enough, we moved on. But yeah, that was a nice moment, and there is a nice Dmitri is a kind of a schmuck through a lot of the seas.
He dances with a pretty girl.
Which is not like he is taking his cheating in a way that kind of made me raise my eyebrows and roll my eyes, but whatever, but he's also being a dick of it having gotten into mit And then when Kenny comes back, he's immediately like, oh, Kenny's gonna be a trader.
Kenny's gonna be a trader.
And kind of because of that, Kenny's well maybe I should be a trader. And so we're like, maybe it should be a trader. And they do a nice thing of Kenny, like jumping into one of those fights and like taking up two guys pretty quickly, and I was just like, Okay, good justice for Kenny because I liked him a lot.
And I felt like there was with all of the stuff going on, I was like, you can't have like thirty seconds for like Dimitrian Hawk to acknowledge that like they were wrong, you know, because how kind of bought into what Dimitri was selling Eli, and so it was just kind of like I felt like that was a beat, a story beat that was missing.
You know, they acknowledge it to each other, right, but them to like exactly, Kenny, well.
Done, exactly, you know, like sorry, like an apology, you know, yeah, ten seconds. Even geez Toy.
Is once again shipped on by the whole show.
I don't know, I'm not as I'm not as sold on that, Okay, I I don't know. I don't think she's necessarily I think that might be your interpretation of what they're trying to put out there. I feel like I thought she came off as reasonable, and I felt like the show understood that to an extent, and that the that part of it was the Miaguito people kind of accepting her choice to something like that. It was them dealing with their reaction as opposed to you know.
And I mean, like, I think the way she went about it wasn't great, but the way they went about it wasn't great either. And I do think I mean at the end, she just kind of turned back to like teaming up with them, you know, when when it like you know, when it was going down, when it was like no longer a tournament, when it's like, okay, we're fighting for real now, Okay, I'm on your I'm on your side.
You know, I should have been clear when I say shad On, I don't mean that I think they make her make bad decisions, they make her the bad guy. I mean that, like, continuing the trend of the last four seasons, bad things happened to her and she can't win. Oh yeah, yeah, that that's what I meant, because and like in terms of her kind of like getting that redemption, Like, yeah, I I agree with you that it seems that they kind of forgive her and they kind of understand her.
And you're right, I.
Don't think the show thinks that she was like horrible, but it does seem like it's like, oh, you were in your grief and you made a dumb decision and we're okay with that, instead of like.
The Larusso's were really horrible to you and should have let.
You fight when you like, there's just never been that acknowledgment. Yeah, but that's yeah, I heard go on.
Oh just I just I guess I kind of disagree on maybe how they mean it or like, I don't think they are showing it to be like that she did make a bad decision, but like that's fair, but definitely they don't get the she doesn't get the kind of acknowledgment from everyone else that like, you know, she made her choice and like that's her choice to make and you.
Know, right, No, I think I think it's clearly true.
And and the Cobra Kai team is portrayed like quant Yeah, yeah, Kuan is definitely just like I said, just kind of like a dick and he's hitting on her and she's annoyed by that. But we do get a nice kind of some development from Kim, including her having this kind of hilarious episode where her and Chosen are both looking for their kids and keep running into each other, right, and then get into the and there's just this kind of like building tension and then they like fight and
fight and fight and kiss. Yeah, and it was really kind of nice and like, and she gets to have a couple of nice moments with Toy where it's still like, Okay, you're not Miyagi Doo by any means, but like before she'd been like Tori, I don't care what's happening to you. But then she kind of gets hurt by Chosen a little bit as well, and she kind of looks at Tory and be like, yes, they will break our heart, they betray.
Them to make all that take that anger. Yeah, which was an interesting moment for sure.
And I feel like she also she was the leader of Cobra Kai, right, right, And then then Chris comes in and he's like, no, I'm going to be the leader of Cobra Kai. But like, I feel like the arc that if I mean, I mean, we'll get to like I don't even know if I want to contemplate the third part, but I feel like a good, a good ending to the series would be like her and
Chosen running Cobra Kai or something. Yeah, I can see you know, or even Johnny you know, like I mean, because I feel like the show is called Cobra Kai and their tagline is Cobra Kaind never dies, right.
And I will say that I was worried early in the season because but when the when this part of the season starts, we're pretty solid in the world of Miagito good Cobra Kai bad, and that has been very tied up with a lot of Danny good Johnny bad, and I kind of didn't want to see that anymore because I was like, that felt like the whole point of your original Seasons was like, maybe that's not always true, and maybe like Danny grows up to be the bully and Johnny grows up to be a decent guy with
some flaws, to be sure, and towards the end in this part, at least, while they're still very like Miagiedo, it felt like there was a little more recognition of like, yeah, like like Johnny's style and Danny's style both have some real merits to them, and that you know, it's not just like the Miyagi is the perfect way, and that both Johnny as a teacher, but also the style that he's dedicated to, which is much more cobra kai, has some real value and merit beyond it being you know,
sweep the leg and bribe the judge, you know, all this nonsense.
It's a martial art, you know, And it's like martial arts are their own things. It's like a mini culture, and each art is its own art, and each teacher is their own teacher, and so you know, you can have an art and then you have a new teacher, and it's it's a different thing. You know, it's the same thing coming through a different person, but it ends
up therefore it ends up different. And so you know, and I mean this is how martial arts evolve as well, where you don't have you know, one, It's like most martial arts come from other martial arts, you know, like these are different branches of the same tree basically, And so I think there's often basically being like, oh, this is the good one and this is the bad one. Is like it's like looking at cultures and being like, oh, this is a good culture. This is a bad culture.
It's like that's not it's not really good, you know, a good way of looking at things. And I think a lot of times that doesn't mean you can't look at a culture and say, well, I think this aspect of this culture is very problematic. I think it's very harmful to people within the culture or without it, right, But that doesn't mean like that like one is good
and another's bad. And and you know, I think Miagi Do is like I think it's mostly a good martial art and it seems like that's very positive outlook, you know, but that doesn't mean that that there's not room for
something else to have value. And so I do think having Cobra Kai like basically being able to see the value in it and having the show come back around to being able to sort of display that value as opposed to I feel like that's kind of I feel like maybe there's a redemption arc for Cobra Kai the very much hope the school, you know, because.
And again I do think like kind of like you said, like any like any culture isn't my atheistic, Any culture
isn't monolithic. Many cultures are monotheistic, That's whole of the story, but like can have trends, and I think the idea of Cobra Kai is definitely much more a like do anything you can to win right, which there is an interpretation of that which I think is generally the one and very much the one that Johnny does says, which is what he means is like never quit, never give up on yourself, don't accept defeat as a possibility, and do everything you can within the rules to win right.
I think it's understandable that.
Some people would take like that the Cobra Kai philosophy would lead a person towards do anything you can to win means going outside the lines of the rules more than something like Myagi Doo would so, like, I don't not bothered by the fact that there are the Silvers and the and the creases who are involved in that, but yeah, I would like it if there was some level of like that doesn't mean that Miagi Doo fully defense.
I mean, you know, it's kind of like the Jedi and Sith, you know, like or I mean the Sith is clearly yeah, but the Jedi are not all good good good, and like the dark Side can have some possibilities, you.
Know exactly, and when you're specifically talking about learning self defense or you know, in the ability to defend yourself can also extend to the ability to defend others. Like once something comes to violence, it comes to violence, you know, right, and so you can you can temper that by saying, Okay, well, don't don't be the one who brings it to violence. But if somebody else does, like you know, win like you know, yeah, don't let them succeed in in leveraging
their willingness to commit violence. Don't don't let that become a way that they can oppress.
Basically, I think it's Captain America who says that his father taught him don't start the fight but end it maybe yeah, yeah, but seems like that's kind of similar idea.
Mhm.
So let's talk about the Miagi of it all.
Ohagi, Okay, yeah, sure, sure, that's that's not even the worst part for me.
But no, it's not the worst part, but anything. Yeah, so we get we get a dream. So we find out that like, uh, Mayagi fought in the side Taychai a long time ago. Uh he wears this captain's thing that is covered in blood, and uh we learned that he had killed someone in a fight.
Yeah, and that somebody, Yes, that someone dies, he thought someone in the competition and that person died.
And there's no.
Indication given that like he used like a deaf move that he shouldn't have, or like he didn't stop when like you know, time was called or something. Someone died. And the the German guy who was running it all said, yeah, that did happen sometimes, like we tried to avoid it obviously, but in a way that's kind of like it doesn't happen anymore.
Until well, that wasn't in the competition that was Battle Royale.
Although the utter lack of security by the people running this tournament might be mentioned in the numerous lawsuits that are gonna happen, but we'll get to that in a second. But yeah, so Danny starts having like and he gets sent off on a weld goose chase to try and find information about Yagi, which turns out to just be the plot to lock him in a dog cage with people who also just torture dogs for no good reason other than to remind us that they are bad, bad.
Yeah. Yeah, it's just establish their awfulness, I guess, right.
But the dogs get freed and get to like eat their opponents, you know, their oppressors, so it's good for them, Like Johnny's cold, like like the.
Dogs, Danny, thank you.
The dogs just like tear into the guy who's been like locking him up and he's like, you should have fed your dogs, and he walks out and I was one of those but but yeah, so anyway, and then Danny has a dream in which he kind of like sees himself fighting a younger version of Miyagi, and then like a cut to what I guess is an AI generated older version of Miyagi.
Do you care about that storyline in the slightest what storyline?
I don't know what you're talking about.
Okay, that's fair.
I'm pretty sure that didn't happen.
Yes there is there, There is no Miyagika.
I'm okay with that.
Uh, yes, No, So I don't care about that storyline in terms of like, oh I need to know what happened that whole time, I was like, what are we doing? Like can we just go and see a tournament where kids fight each other? Like isn't that what we're here for?
Aren't they just supposed to be fighting. Isn't there like a tournament, like give me the pod racing, you know, But like they're like, no, we're gonna give you everything except for anything resembling a martial arts tournament, including what was supposedly the martial arts tournament, which, by the way, if you're fighting with no gear up on platforms that you can fall off of. And I know there was padding after the like super high one, but the earlier
one I didn't really see padding. But like they're they're fighting with no gear full contact. Yeah, no one does that. Like if you do that, there may be deaths. There will be severe injuries like all the time, all the time.
Like, like you think concussions have a bad rate in football, you have people kicking each other in the head without protection on a regular basis, Like that is a one way take ato concussion land.
Yeah, people are gonna punch each other in the mouth and break their hands. By the way, if you knock someone's tooth out of their mouth, you're probably gonna hurt yourself. You don't punch someone in the jaw, That's why. That's why punch them in the throat. You hit them in the eyes, you hit them in the temples. The mouth is a very bad place to locate your knuckles, like
you will probably injure yourself. And so the idea that like, ooh there was a fatality like fifty years ago or something is like, yeah, of course there was, Like look at what you're doing, Oh, that doesn't happen anymore. It would probably, I mean, there is fighting with punching to the head in various sports, right, but it's like bare knuckle boxing is something very different from boxing with gloves. Right, My understanding is it doesn't happen quite so much anymore.
No, Right, it was not good for people. It was concussions box got Boxing with.
Gloves and head gear isn't good for people, but people do it, but it's much less bad. And so martial arts competitions. If you're wearing no gear, it's going to be a stop match, which is how most karate is. And I'm not saying that none of this happens anywhere in the world, you know, and I'm not quite sure what you wear in muay Thai, but like my point is, if these kids were going at it with each other with no gear, like a fatality should not be a
shocking result. It would be a terrible result. But like when you hit someone hard and there's no protective equipment involved, someone might die. Like that's just how it works. And somebody is very likely to get seriously injured in something like this, Like every tournament, there would be a serious injury, and.
Especially those platforms, Like yet you're falling onto padding, but you're often falling head first. Yes, you can fall out that you phone your head, you could break your neck, you could break your back, like you could just even if you're like getting a dislocated shoulder, like like not life threatening, but like bad, Yeah, like would be happening.
Half the team would be like unable to fight it.
Yeah, and now the show has had a general conceit that no serious injuries are going to occur by accident during martial arts fighting. That's basically been kind of the it's it's like a version of comic book violence. Right, It's right, it's martial arts.
We won't kill unless you intentionally.
Hit, right exactly, And like there's an extent to which I'm okay with that, Like that's fine if that's your paradigm. But then what you don't do is go and try and like raise the stakes by like having someone fall on a knife, because like, to me, the message is like, oh, well,
once knives are involved, someone's probably gonna die. Like there was one fight where somebody had a knife and they died, And there were a bunch of fights that people were not at all exercising any caution and apparently no one died.
Well, and let's tell the whole story of what happens with a knife. It'll be brief, but it's worth going into. So Cris has had this knife. It's a knife that he got from from the grandfather of Kim, who's like the grandmaster of this former karate. It goes all the way back to his time in Vietnam and he he the knife gets stolen, He gets back and he is just gonna kill Silver after Cobra Kai gets knocked out of the tournament and he's still planning to but then
he finds out his team is back in it. But then all this fighting breaks out and he's like, screw it, I'm gonna go kill Silver. And originally, at least they sort of set it up as the kids are gonna have this kid fight, I mean the high schoolers, but still like the kids are gonna have this martial arts fight. And then often like a back room, in a locker room somewhere, Crease and Silver are possibly can have a
fight to the death. But then like he does, walk through a room of a whole hunch of kids jumping at each other and fighting each other.
He's not holding a knife, he just tucks it into the back of his pants. He gets knocked out somehow.
And then the part that I find the hardest to believe, again because we have no characterization for him, like we've seen in the show other people who are raised in you know, borderline abusive, if not abusive situations where they're told like their only value is that they're good at fighting. Like Axel, who's the person on Iron Dragon, is kind of in that situation. Johnny was definitely in that situation.
Silver was in that situation. Crease was that situation at one point, like it fucks with you and it makes you do stupid shit when you lose. But the idea that he would just see a knife there and grab it and decide I'm gonna go kill someone on international television, yeah, which because for some reason they didn't cut the TV when the whole thing battle Royale and again there's no security.
Just to make that clear. Did that seem in any way believable to you?
I mean, I don't believe of a fight like this would ever break out at a martial arts tournament like this. I mean, the only ones where I could see something like that happen would be where there was some kind of external political turmoil that like there were tensions that were like that like transcended martial arts.
But like the if there's a Russian team and a Ukrainian team and an Israeli team.
Right, sure, yeah, sure, Like I could see the.
American team and anyone else who was legitimate reason to hate us, like whatever it.
Is, but like it's but it's like the the whole animosity between all of the competitors is so anethema to the way martial arts, big international martial arts tournaments actually function, as far as my understanding and certainly in terms of my experience in a smaller pool fighting with people, like there's the real experience of like just beating the crap out of each other and then like shaking hands, you know, kind of half hugging each and like, you know, maybe
some people grab a beer afterwards, maybe some people just sit around and eat pizza and chat about whatever. But it's like there is this real like you know, we fought hard and like we're good. And yeah, I'm sure that's not always everybody's experience, but like the idea that this tournament is this like there's this much animosity between all the teams just doesn't ring true to me. I'm
sure there are times when it's true, and I don't know. No, the short answer is no, it doesn't feel at all realistic. I do think keeping the feed live is semi realistic because it's like, oh, this is good television. You know, everything will be fine. No one ever gets injured unless somebody's deliberately trying to kill them. Oh, you know. And there's a whole history of that knife, of the the jong do, which is like, I won't even get into it,
but there there they were often used for suicide. Actually okay, and there's a whole whole thing.
But he he starts out by pointing the knife at himself, and I had a moment where I was like, you realize, sapuku is not Korean, it's Japanese.
Yeah. No, Sadly, Korea also has a history of all those mostly women who were widows. And then if you can kill yourself, then you can never be accused of infidelity, and then like your family gets money or something. I don't know. This is this is not a current day practice. Yeah, this is you know from well.
Like when he pointed that knife in himself, did you have that moment? Do you have that same thought for a second?
Not really, I was just like what are we doing?
Yeah?
I was like what it is going on? I mean I was like, well one of these people is probably now somebody's gonna die because there's a knife, you know, Chekhov's in Jong do you know, like like great and like to me the thing there's two things that I
absolutely detested about three maybe right. So one the fact that we have a oh, we're gonna raise the stakes by killing off a character in a show where we've never really killed off a character except like maybe the head of the Iron Dragons killed someone in a cage match. It looks like probably, but it was kind of it was a little bit like jet in anyway, Like, now we're gonna raise the stakes by killing someone, but it's
not gonna be with hand to hand fighting. It's gonna be with a knife, right, which is like almost like kind of telling a lie to me about like hand to hand fighting. Like if you're trying to show how deadly the tournament is and how the stakes are high, then why are you introducing this external factor that's not really part of the tournament, you know, So like that felt weird to me in that way, so I felt
like they're kind of cheating that. And then the second one was it's this, we're going to raise the stakes by killing off a character. We haven't given any real personality besides like one trait, and you haven't had that long to get attached to. This is just the tenth episode he's been in, right, So it's not like one of the recur you know, characters from not one of the main characters really, right, it's one of the recurring
characters from this season. And then also like when you like, I've given them like a lot of slack, I think in terms of their both lack of and generally poor Asian representation, because I do feel like there really is a place for martial arts stories that are not primarily about Asian or Asian American people. I think those are
stories that deserve to exist. I think that insisting that every martial arts story has to have a bunch of Asian people in it, I don't think is I think is kind of anti Asian.
Also, and I loved that at one point they had an Asian character who wasn't into martial arts.
Yeah, yeah, that was great and then he started martial less. But like, ye, you know, and they've gotten better in terms of having more Asian characters, but when the show has been so bad in that regard in the first place, and it's kind of like I feel like I was kind of like giving them a pass and like, certainly not everybody had to, you know, and certainly there were things that are like that's uncomfortable, and I'm sure something's made some people more uncomfortable than others. But I felt
like they were making some progress in that regard. But then if like the only character you kill off after being so bad on that front is like you know this, you know, Asian villain really without any personality beyond like I want to win and like I'm willing to do anything it It doesn't feel good.
It doesn't.
And to give a clear picture to those who didn't watch the show of what we mean by this, like there are teams from all over the.
World, and there's sixteen teams.
Right, it's never stated that there can only be one team from any one country, but apparently the San Fernando Valley is the only part of the United States.
That cares about martial arts.
But like they mentioned the other teams that they're fighting, and there's a Spanish team, there's an Irish team, which are played as villains too. For like if anyone's going to be like, yeah, this is all good fun, let's go have a beer, like it's the Irish team.
The Irish and orange by the way.
Yes, which which I did check.
That is the thing. I mean, I know it's part of the flag. I mean orange and green.
Quick story.
Orange is the color of the Protestant settlers, William of Orange and all that green has been the color of the Irish. The flag was meant to be a flag of unity, but then kind of obviously it didn't happen because there wasn't unification in two thousand. In twenty two, I believe the Irish Olympic team or some some major
Irish sorry, the men's soccer team. I think it was the World Cup in two that in twenty two played in orange and it was like a really big deal because the first time any Irish team had won orange in twenty five years.
So I said, I was like, they're an orange really.
But okay, but happened two years ago. Maybe it's happening again, who knows. But like there's a Swedish team, there's an Irish team, there's a Brazilian team, which great, let's have like Brazil.
At least.
I was happy that we're getting outside of Europe. But like we never mentioned a Japanese team.
Yeah, which there is. There is a Japanese team, right.
They just don't play any meaningful role. There's a Russian team, as we mentioned. Yeah, there's a Kenyan team. Don't remember saying much about them.
Yep.
I didn't see any other team from any other part of Asia.
Yeah, I mean, well technically Cobra Kai I guess is from.
Yeah, I did other than other other than and I guess Iron Dragon is from Hong Kong.
Yes, but I don't think they ever say that word.
And no, they have a they have a logo. I mean they have the flat you know, the red yeah, the white whatever it is flower inside the red circle. Yeah, so so that's that's on the back of their uniforms, but they never mentioned it. And just for the record, like the Iron Dragon's team, their coach is Asian, right
or Asian English or something, I'm not sure. And they're four non captains are all Asian, but then they're two like captains are both not Asian, and the four non captains just like take a knee and bow out all the time and just let the captains do everything. So it kind of felt like they were like, oh no, no, look, look we have Asian characters, and it's like but those aren't characters. Those are like what are you talking about?
And Zara, Well, the actress is Asian, so I think we're supposed to think that she might be Asian, but she's South Asian. She's Indian and great, like South Asian representation is great, but it's it's not East Asian.
And I mean, I think they're meant to be an international team, you know, And I mean Hong Kong is an extremely international.
Chinese in Hong Kong makes complete sense.
And I I liked him a lot actually, like a lot of the stuff with his character was kind of like what, I don't know. I just I actually enjoyed Mortal Kombat a surprising amount and I was like, oh, that's that guy.
Yeah, I think I suggested you watch it because I was like, this is really weird how much I like maybe the other Yeah.
He was also in Shadow and Boone, which like, oh right, and like I wanted to like Axel, who's the male of Darren Dragons, But other than having a mild crush on Sammy and then getting pissed at Miguel but then coming to help Sammy in the fight, he doesn't really do anything.
Yeah. Yeah, he kind of started to have a little character development, and then they're like, how about if we just give him one character trait for the moment.
Right, and he has this like Wolf treats him horribly and he's in that like, you know, you have to do this.
You have nothing.
You can't do this.
That's the that's the coach, the or the the sense or the leader of the right. Which then again it's like, okay, you have a team from Hong Kong, but Terry Silver took them over, just like you have a team from Korea which was like originally Korean but then actually but then was Chris and then was Johnny and then was Korean again, but then Chris takes them over, you know.
So it's like, so you have like three teams kind of we're sort of from Asia and like one of them, one of them isn't like taken over by like someone from the US, and but we never see them, like I don't even know what the you know, like did like I don't, I don't know.
They and the Russian.
The Russian team is so they're not fine, but their their sense is are just like they're basically acting like rooted out idiots, like they're just so for some reason they decide in one episode, I think five people with five different accents call Sammy a bitch, Like what are we doing here?
Yeah, I'm not sure that was all to her, but I think I think it's a lot of I think it was just people like, you know, welcome to Barcelona, bitch. But in like all these different I was just like, do we need this many of this? You know?
Yeah, like it a lot, a lot. I kind of felt bad.
I'm kind of curious the actress who played Zara if she was a little frustrated with that part, because it like, yeah, she it.
Like influencers are a thing, and.
Some of them you might have have negative issues with I have, you know, certainly some, but like I don't know these people. I just see what they're presenting and are in a media economy and in ironment that's encouraging them to be like these things that don't often come off well. And like clearly the actresses won and like she's using it to be an influencer in martial arts and she's a model and she looks really good and like,
God bless her, what the hell's wrong with that? And the betrayal of her as an influencer is so shitty and like, like the only re exposure to what I have is from cosplayers or kind of have kind of like big influencer accounts, but they're so happy to lift each other up and come and support each other. And so she kind of is in an elevator with Sammy and Tory, no, Sammy and Devin at one point, and it's just like talking to her fans, like while she's
live streaming, it's like, yeah, I don't even show. The people on my stream aren't even worth it, you know, like they're not as good fighters as me.
No, no, no, she said, only winners, like I only tell the stories of winners, you know.
And it's just so petty and like the way she goes at the Robbie and maybe assaults him while he's drunk or maybe she was drunk too.
Or life vanished, however you want to say it.
But yeah, whatever it is, it's it definitely seems like, yeah, it seems like she's basically doing it just to fuck with toy and also to have a like, look, this is a toy that I want so I can, and it just it just felt really mean to her character in a way that I just didn't think like the actress was great.
Actress was an incredible martial artist. Yeah, probably the best female martial artists we've seen on the show.
Yeah, yeah, I'm trying to I don't I don't want to totally sign off on that without being able to mentally catalog everybody, but like, yeah, that is probably accurate. I mean, she's phenomenal at Yeah, she's got like yeah, yeah, I think her and Brandon ah Lee are the two
most impressive. I mean, I think best martial artists is a thing that you don't know if you're watching the show, but most impressive in terms of on screen display of athleticism and martial arts martial arts athleticism, because like the what it actually means to be a good martial artist is not something you're necessarily going to be able to tell from someone acting and performing a choreographed dance, right, Like somebody might not be able to do ninety percent
of what someone much more athletic and acrobatic can do. By the way, like everybody was doing ridiculous acrobatic stuff, like they just decided this is how they're doing it now. But like like Robbie and whatever, but like but like if that one person can stand there and time you and when you come on, they come in, they just hate you with a reverse punch, Like that's a better martial artist. And I don't care if you could do it five point forty kick you know, like that that's
not that's a very cool thing. And in terms of like exhibitions and stuff and in terms of certain types of competition, that's awesome and can be great.
But if you leave yourself undefended while you're doing that, then yeah, it's not good.
Yeah, but I mean not even just that, it's like that's not really that's not the thing you train to be a better fighter, right, Like that's that's to show off. Mostly there are certain things that do look flashy that can be useful, but like a lot of the most the most relevant martial arts skills are like much less impressive and it's really more about timing and stuff like that. But but yeah, she's awesome. That's that's the point, if that's what you're getting at.
Yeah, and just that the character I thought was like.
Yeah, I I I doubt like she's super disappointed with the character because like she's twenty one, hasn't had any other big acting roles, and she got to be in a series that's quite popular and do tons of awesome martial arts, Like, yeah, that's true. You know, It's like this, this isn't necessarily someone who's been in acting school since she was two, someone who's been doing martial arts since
she was two, you know. And I certainly don't want to speak for her, but my guess is that the majority of the actors actually probably feel better about their characters than we do. Like I know from what I've heard anyway of uh master Kim, of what she's said about her character, like really appreciating the opportunity to actually play a female sense, which they didn't even really have
any of up until her, you know. And it's like, you know, we can be critical of her character or the lack of depth, or I do think actually there's room there for that to end up being a satisfying story. Also, I really feel like she had an Australian accent in the first episodes she showed up in and now I think she's doing a Korean accent. And I know she is Australian, but I don't know maybe her maybe she was always doing an accent, but it came out Australian
and now it sounds more like a Korean accent. I don't know, but like I do think there's an extent to which, like actors sometimes probably try to find the most they can within the character. Not that there's not gonna be disappointment that there's not or that there's some things that they're like, I don't feel like that, why would this character do this? Like you know, we're doing this thing again, you know, but like.
I'll just put it this way.
Even ten years the actor thing, Zara gets to have a great career and she gets up to play some parts where there's also some acting depth or some more sure I could see her saying something like, you know, I'm always grateful to Cobra Kai for getting my start, but this character feels like a more accurate representation of some kind of like thing about like but yeah, I agree, like like for your start, Like I don't think anyone's complaint, you know.
So we actually got a question in the chat from.
Max Kelly that leads into kind of a we'll get to the exact question, but don't want to start with something a little broader. What will the final fight of the series be And what I want to start with is I've seen a lot of stuff online talking about, oh my god, I can't wait till like part three, because what's gonna happen when we get back to the
you know thing? And like to me, like, these are kids right right, parents walking there or back home, even before someone gets killed, they have so little control that was happening. And I'm gonna keep harpening on no security thing, but like literally, when the kids start fighting, the adults have no way to stop it. Lots of people are gonna get hurt, and then someone actually dies on live international television.
I don't think there's any way Like everyone's going home and and there's.
Probably a lot of lawsuits being filed, and I don't think there's any way that like everyone's like, oh, that's really sad, let's have a funeral, and then two days later we're continuing the tournament, right like this is over?
Eyah? Do you mean do you mean in a logical world that's what would happen? Or do you mean okay, because.
A logical world, there's any way this tournament continues.
Here's the thing, judging by the way they've conducted things to this point. Yes, yes, I think these people who decided that this whole thing was a good idea would start the tournament. Again, I don't think they would start it like the next day. I think maybe they would say, Okay, you know, we're gonna we're gonna take a week off or something, you know, two weeks. Oh, and then we have to figure out who's gonna replace the dead guy
on Cobra Kai's roster. You know, Like I feel like that's like, yeah, I do feel like these people like name a good idea they've had, you know, and obviously the writers would likely just be like, oh, yeah, we're gonna do that, but maybe not. Maybe that is the end of But it feels like there's too much like un resolved, you know. It's like, well, is that going to be the end of that? And then like I
originally what I was thinking is like this. Once I discovered that this was actually only the second third and not the last half, I was like oh, But like I was like, okay, what if for this third they go big and they do this big tournament and then at the end of the tournament, the third part is like this like dnumat of like now we're gonna go home. What happens when you go home after something like that? Right?
What if you lose? What if you win? Like what if some of you loosen some of you win because you're on different teams or whatever, Like what.
If Miguel wins but he doesn't get into Stanford? But if you know, like all the stuff that going back to their.
Lives exactly, because I feel like the show started small, and I think it was good because it was small, Like The Karate Kid is the story of a kid getting bullied but also kind of being a bully. Like, you know, it was less than like rewatching the Karate Kid. It's less like Johnny's just bullying Danny. Like Danny kind of sticks up for himself and like does some similar kind of prankish type whatever type stuff back.
He makes Peter Parker look polite, right, Like he talks back.
He fight exactly, and then him getting threatened his safety getting threatened by you know, a group of kids who know karate. And then one guy teaches one kid karate and then they go to a tournament and he wins the tournament. And that's that's the story. That's the whole thing. Like the stakes are like, this kid's worried about getting beat up. He learns karate, he wins a tournament, and now he's not worried about getting beat up. That's you know,
there's there's a girl, you know, that's the thing. But like that's basically the plot. And and then the plot of season one of Cobra Kai was like similarly small. There's a kid who's getting bullied and he's you know, kind of afraid for his safety, but also he's lacking the confidence of just being able to stick up for himself. And then you know, the guy teaches him karate and then he goes to a tournament and like he feels better about himself, you know, And like there's there's more
layers to that. It's a series. It's ten episodes, right, it's longer than a movie. But it's simple. It's small, and the heart of it is this relationship between these two characters. It's not the relationship between Danny and Johnny. That's not heart of the show. You know. It's not between Robbie and Miguel's. It's Miguel and Johnny I think
are really the core of the show. And I feel like seeing what happens after this big moment, because that's this whole show, is what happens after losing that big tournament. Well what if they lost this tournament and then they came back and he didn't get into store, or he gotten to Stanford and couldn't go or whatever. You know, it's like what happens now, Like do they run a
dojo together? You know? Do they do that as like a business, like because like Miguel could teach by this point, you know, and so I feel like that would be an interesting story that I don't think we're gonna get. And to me, the last fight would be not a fight, it would be like some new kid coming in and like Miguel teaching him, you know, like this is how you tie your belt? You know, Okay, we now we say yes sense, you know, Like to me, that would
be a great ending to the show. And maybe we will get something like that in a five minute scene or something at the end. I don't know, not to say that Miguel should become a karate teacher, you know, but he could, you know, And it's like he doesn't have to go to Stanford, but he can't and we'll see.
Yeah, But like like I do think by this point it's become more of an ensemble show in a way that I mostly like, I don't like that Danny Lrusso has become such a big part of it, and and that we're kind of we backed away from the original idea of like that Larusso's kind of gotten a swollen head and becoming kind of an idiot, and Johnny is our.
Very much a screwed up guy.
Like I think he was just as much of a protagonist as Miguel was in season one, Like.
You said, yes, the dynamic, Yeah, now.
I think like, like one of the things I think it's been a running theme is Johnny trying to also fix his relationship with his you know, son, Robbie, and.
That now like like there's always a.
Father son dynamic between him and Miguel, but then once he becomes partners with Carmen, like he's now kind of a stepfather, And an important moment like where Miguel feels like he's favoring Robbie, like he says, like you're my son too, And so I feel like Robbie and Sammy and Tory have all become part of it, and yeah, I care about all of them. Yeah, like Sammy, Sammy and Hawk and Eli and all of them are going to be going off to colleges. Robbie's not, Tory's probably not.
I care what happens to them. I want to know what's going on with them. Yeah, the whole kind of like you know, Hobbits go back to the Shire would have been great for a final five episodes.
Yeah, I'm gonna.
Watch because as terrible as I thought this was, it was entertaining and I never wanted like, I never wanted to stop, and everyone was like, oh god, I after watch one more episode, I was like, oh.
My god, this is horrible, give me more popcorn.
I watch it.
In part because I was like rehearse, like, yeah.
You're like, oh this is I'm gonna say this about this thing.
YEP.
One thing I sometimes do now, especially if Paul has seen something, is I will message Paul as we're going about things, I say about things I think of what we're seeing, and then often like I will watch a lot later into the night, Paul's an hour ahead of me, and so sometimes Paul gets to wake up to like two pages of Discord saying like.
I was something to say, but a lot of it was very negative.
But yeah, I I really want to think that there's gonna be some like Missus LaRusso has always been the one who is like, guys, I feel like she's the only one who's ever had the perspective on this, And I feel like like most of these kids.
Have parents right right back home somewhere.
And that most of them would be like, I am okay with you traveling around the world for high school athletics. This is a big deal. And if someone died in a freak accident, maybe I'm still okay.
But a person died a because.
People had no like the the the organizers had no idea what to do when all this fighting broke out, and also because one of the adults who was like officially supposed to be taking care of these kids brought a knife into the fight that they got a kid used to try and like try.
To kill someone else and kill themselves.
So if you told me that, like because we are technically in the finals, and if you told me therefore that like most of the schools went home and Cobra Kai was like, no, Cobra Kai never dies. Well, one of us did die, but Cobra Kai itself never dies and that like maybe even like half of Miyagi Doo goes home and that's why Toy switched asides or something, because like Dmitri's parents are not letting him stay.
Let's be there.
So yeah, but you're probably right, like we probably do have to finish this damn thing. So if that's the case, who's the final fight between?
Oh, I don't care, like I seriously like in terms of the actual I mean, I think Torri will probably beat up Zara. I think I don't even like did they do start? Did they start the semifinals? Like I don't they didn't, So they got to the semifinals, turned out Cobra Kai was going to be in it, and then while they were setting that up, the head of the Russian team came over.
And kicked the German, the head of the federation right ahead, and we all got started right right.
Right, Yeah, So, like I mean, the Iron Dragons are obviously the best and they should win, like they're just like also just like I don't know, I mean, I guess maybe Kwan is just more like impressive and less like like I was saying before, like timing and stuff like that is more important than necessarily being able to do something fancy, but like him losing and something. I just it felt like you know, they're like they'll nerf and buff characters based on just the outcome they want, you know.
And so Robbie got his heart a little broken and lost all ability to fight whatsoever for the first like five episodes. Right.
See that part doesn't bother me so much, because if you lose focus, you really can lose the ability to compete. Like that's real. But what can't happen is you get motivation and suddenly like you get superpowers. Like that's not how things work, right, Like you have your ceiling, that's the best you can fight, and you can fight that well when you're really focused and right, and some kind of extra adrenaline whatever can help you do certain things.
But actually too much adrenaline can really interfere. But like losing focus, like getting worse, fine if there's like a real concrete reason, but like just randomly getting worse so that someone else can win because the writers decided. It's like I don't know that.
I think with Kwan, I a little bit believed it because, like what you said about adrenaline, the sense that I got was that he was someone who was the best of the best, but also had on some level never really meet in his match, and that fighting Axel and fighting Miguel, and also like some of his other teammate Like there is a great scene I think probably my
favorite fighting scene is where Eli and Dmitri hawking. Dmitri, who been having fights all this time, wind up like in this kind of the tag in tagout they're fighting another of the Korean fighters who's not Kwan, and they realized they kind of have him cornered over where Dmitri and Eli can keep tagging each other in, but they can stop him from tagging out, and he gets exhausted, And I thought that was like brilliantly done, and I love like him reaching out of hand and kicking it down.
Really well done.
But I guess I got sense that Kwan was the kind of person who, like kind of like Johnny in the original movie, as he got more and more frustrated that he wasn't winning, lost focus in that regard, like it became more of the adrenaline.
It became more than like.
No, I'm the best, I have to do this right, I kind of have to believe or also you don't believe he goes to the knife, right right?
Right?
Yeah, I guess maybe I would have to watch it again to really have an opinion on that. And that's not gonna happen.
It's just not gonna do.
That wouldn't be prudent.
No oh hello hello?
So yeah, yeah, I mean, I like, who's even left? I mean I I do feel like I think Tory should beat Sam, yes, like please? And I forget what the matchups are? Who who are the Iron Dragons fighting? Are they fighting Cobra Kai or are they fighting?
So it's the idea, is that this point that you're representing your team, but everyone's fighting as individuals from here on. And there are four teams left. There's Cobra Kai, Miagi Do Iron Dragons, and the Spanish team whose name I do not remember because we pay almost no attention.
To it, thank you.
So.
And in the first match, if I remember, it was going to be Miguel against Axel and Kwan against the Spanish guy, and then it was going to be Sam against Tory Miguel. But isn't isn't Robbie You're Robbie Robbie, Yeah, Robbie, Robbi against Axel fighting for Sam's love, and then.
Uh, it's Robbie not.
Miguel, right right, you're right God.
And then Sam against Zara.
No, I think it's I think, yes, Sam against zaraig because then Inventory against the Spanish girl, I think.
And then question Mark against the Spanish dude. I guess TBD is up for for Cobra Kai. I feel like that should be Miguel. Yeah, I mean I think Creese should get booted, and then Miguel should be the replacement for and then obviously all the Cobra Kai and the you.
Know, because Chris gets i mean booted, hopefully arrested.
But he's a veteran with PTSD.
So anything's okay. But so.
What if Johnny takes over Cobra KAII and with him, Yeah, except Robbi would hate it.
Like, No, I don't think Johnny would take over. I mean, maybe he will, but I feel like I want, you know,
Master Kim to actually like have a team. I don't know, Yeah, but maybe Johnny goes over there and partners with her, you know, probably chosen would yeah, but no, but I mean it could be like Johnny goes over there and coaches Miguel and and she coaches Tori, and like, I want Cobra Kai to win in that matchup, you know, and that I think that's probably that That's how I would end it if I were contractually obligated to write the last five episodes and have the first four be
about the Psychai tai Kai or two or three or something, this whole Miagi thing. I don't even like what I uh I've said.
Yeah, I would end the Psychi tay Kai in the first episode and then just go back and have that, you know, hobbits in the shire last four episodes.
I do think what's his name, Wolf, the Lewis Tan character, Like, I feel like something more is gonna happen with him, Like I think outside of the just being a coach for the tournament, you know, or sense like, I think there's something there, probably I don't know, unless they just keep focused too much on Crease and Silver, Like I feel like, can we just can we just be done with them? Can they just can they just kind of you know, like.
I really don't care about them anymore?
Yeah, I feel like and and that's my overwriting criticism of this season I'm gonna call it, is that I feel like we're just retreading the same ground again, and like, I guess we're getting some cool martial arts that's a little different from what we saw earlier, you know, I think and I do think one difficulty of the show is that you're getting exceptional martial artists in terms of at least like physical ability, athleticism and everything to play
these characters. And then your main cast is a bunch of people who have you know, made a great effort to learn martial arts and look credible as local competitors. But like you know, the international stage and the regional stage are just so I mean, it's not the same, and so it's it's just it. It definitely feels like there's just this like it feels like Cobraka not Cobra KAII. But it feels like the Miagi Doo people and and Tori should just be overmatched, like they've never fought nationally.
They haven't gone around, you know, like their training for this was like they saw a bunch of tourists destinate places in Barcelona, you know, like the train. It just it wasn't to me. I feel like, to jump to this level of competition, it doesn't really feel credible. To me, and you.
Know, I think I think it's true, all right.
I think we're about trying to wrap up any of the last quick things you want to throw out there. And I'm sure you want to give a whole ramp about martial arts, which I want to hold.
Maybe another thing. I just want to say something about it, shortly, quickly.
No, the only thing I want to say is how how it has the Stranger Things problem where they paused between I don't know how long there was in production time between this set of episodes in the previous one or that one in the one before, but Uno O'Brien, who plays Devin Lee, shot ups like a foot or something and just towers over Sam over Samantha like foot taller. I'm like, oh, man, I feel like I'm watching Stranger
Things here. Yeah, Because like they they hired for the main characters who were the older characters, they hired young looking adults. Yeah, and then they The thing about hiring young looking adults to play teenagers is as they get older, they still not being young looking at all. No, for a while, they're still young looking adults, so the characters don't look like they've aged. But then when you hire children or like young teenagers to play younger characters. Time
passes and those people become adults. They don't necessarily become young looking adults.
Oh, I see you're saying.
Yeah, she's like Devon's actress was younger than Sammy's actress. Yeah, but Sam's actress had been done growing in Devin's actress, well.
Exactly, she was a young woman who looked had that kind of like young looking face, right, and she's she's still a young woman with a kind of young looking face, whereas Devin was like a I don't know how old she was, but I think she was like pretty young when she was first cast, and she looks pretty young. And then now time has passed years in the making
of the series, and she just grew. She grew, you know, and like I don't know if she's an adult yet or whatever, but like she's deaf definitely, Like the change in age makes a bigger difference the younger you are, right, Yeah, And you can't choose someone for going for being a young looking adult when they're still a kid, because you don't know how they're gonna look when they're an adult. You might have an idea, you know, but it's like
in Stranger Things. It's you're just looking at them, like, what's what's going on here?
And like.
Whatever, whatever, it's not. I don't really care. I just think it's kind of funny. It is definitely fun particularly because they just put them right next to each other, just straight up put them right next to each other, just like a foot taller.
It was like, wow, yeah, I would definitely agree with that. That's one last thing I was gonna say that's related to that. Nope, totally gone from my head. Any last things.
That That was my last things.
It all to Audians. Thank you all so much. Members. We're not gonna do an episode this week.
It's been a really rough week for me the city of Columbus, fole my car listening to the Star Wars episode, and I'll give you a full explanation of what happened. But Paul, thank you so much for doing this. To all of our listeners, thank you so much. Please think about becoming a member. Five dollars a month, fifty five dollars a year. To everybody we have.
Spoken, strike first, but not yourself.
Strike yourself with mercy. Wait, that's und