lqwrusso

[lqwrusso]

lawrusso or smth

[lqwrusso]

[lqwrusso]

i have so many things i want to say about how the thing… the thing about Miyagi and Daniel is that it was never supposed to be about teaching Daniel to fight- Until the confrontation next to the chain fence, Daniel doesn’t even know he knows karate, and Miyagi wasn’t planning on teaching him.

So, sure the movie is a sports movie and it ends with a fight and it’s very simple and reassuring and all that. There’s this message about proving that you can fight back. The underdog can win. And it is there, and it’s fine. Im not saying it isn’t, but…

But in between that structure, there’s a relationship that is based around an act of unconditional kindness. That’s how it’s starts. The first thing Mr Miyagi does for Daniel is fix his bike. After the the OG cobras have wrecked it and after Daniel has his emotional breakdown, Mr Miyagi goes and says: i’m going to fix this.

He’s not expecting anything in return. Maybe some company but. It’s still all about love. And then Daniel goes down to say thanks and they just. Have a quiet moment together. There’s the metaphor of the bonsais and thinking about who you want to be, which is part if the point. But it’s also just a moment where Daniel gets to be calm. The whole time he has been going from painful moment to painful moment, this is like.  It’s like. I wish I had the word or the metaphor for this. Es como el sol filtrandose por la ventana? 

And in that sense, the movie is  about the value of unconditional kindness in the face of unrelenting pain and loneliness. That’s the point of the teacher-student thing. He’s leading by example. he’s saying this is possible, even if its not always what you encounter. You don’t necessarily have to stand on your own, earn your place, show no fear. It is possible for people to care for each other without asking anything in return. it is possible. It is!

[lqwrusso]

i still think that the conclusion to daniels downward spiral in season 5 shouldnt have been everyone getting together to be there for him. the issue isnt that people were unwilling to meet daniel halfway, the issue is that daniel never expressed his trauma. he spent three seasons avoiding mentioning terry silver by name, only vaguely referencing the events of karate kid 3 without much detail. and when he does to johnny in season 4, it's off screen, which makes me sincerely doubt that daniel actually talked about how that fucked him up emotionally.

daniels trauma with silver is just a fairy tale to sam and the rest of the miyagi-do's. he tells it like a story, one where he pulled away from the dark and one where he triumphed over fear. but he leaves out the bitter, ugly truths, the way it has damaged him even after all this time, leaves out the details, the blood, the pain. the only people who were there at the time dont even really truly understand the extent of it, either, and i doubt daniel wouldve opened up to either jessica or miyagi about how badly terry silver traumatized and hurt him. no one gets it, and no one will--except, well, maybe one person.

with that, i think that it wouldve been more appropriate to tie that arc into johnnys with kreese by making johnny the person daniel actually confesses the extent of his trauma to after the events at stingrays apartment. have the emotional breakdown, or whatever, and have johnny relate, because they have similar experiences! and it tightens the narrative conceivably more because ultimately the catalyst for johnnys regression over the decades was his trauma with kreese, and daniels behavior in ck was due to his trauma with silver. they were both badly abused by these guys! they both developed massive trust issues! it also makes johnny remain significant in season 5 if it remained daniel centric in its plot points, but thematically you still tied johnny into it with kreese.

and, like, it makes sense then that this would be the true start of their friendship, because they recognize they are similar not only in their personalities, but in their trauma, in the ways they hurt, and finally, a recognition of why the other does the things they do. that recognition of "oh, you were a hurt kid too.", and like... you can tie it back to johnnys cobra kai, the refusal to stay the fuck down, because why should they let their abusers have the satisfaction of watching them give up??? and THAT revives daniels drive, and even with a miyagi-do heavy season its still a call back to the (supposed) core of the show

then, you can have the whole getting the gang back together thing for miyagi-fang or whatever lol idk i think there was a ton of missed potential there

[lqwrusso]

Why is Daniel Larusso so fruityy??? 💅like???

I had posted a quote from the book A View from the Bottom: Asian American Masculinity and Sexual Representation by Nguyen Tan Hoang that interviewed Eric Cho, a filmmaker who made a queer short film based on The Karate Kid called We've Got Moves You Haven't Even Heard Of (Part One), who said, "In the original narrative of The Karate Kid, [Daniel] finds his identity and overcomes his enemies, not by taking up gun in typical 8os Rambo/Chuck Norris style, but by disguising his training, becoming more invisible and turning into a beautiful crane over water, therefore connecting to femininity and feminine wisdom.” Hoang summarizes this point on the queer/queerer reading of Daniel LaRusso, stating, "It is under the tutelage of Mr. Miyagi (Noriyuki “Pat” Morita) that Daniel develops a novel masculine-feminine technique of the self that enables his ultimate triumph over his opponents."

While I don't agree to categorize traditional Okinawan karate itself as "feminine", Cobra Kai, its sensei, and students are certainly promoting a heavily (American) masculine presence and doctrine. So in opposition, Daniel is thematically transcending from American values of militarized, societal expectations of masculinity by training, not by the standards and methods his adversaries are practicing, but his own that merges the physical growth of training with beauty, sensitivity, and disguise — a masculine-feminine technique. While Daniel LaRusso may not be queer according to the text, I argue he's often picked up by such (whether derisively or appreciatively) is because of his thematic transcendence of societal ideals of masculinity.

[lqwrusso]

“can’t believe they had demetri beat hawk” that’s probably because their fight was predominantly verbal and demetri solos anyone in a bitching and moaning and arguing and complaining competition

[lqwrusso]

they learned from the best (and i'm not talking about karate)

[lqwrusso]

Where is all of the Daniel as Elphaba, Johnny as G(a)linda fanart I've been expecting?

I THOUGHT YOU PEOPLE WERE ARTISTS!

GET that high kick, pretty boy!

[lqwrusso]

Can season 4 of Cobra Kai please bring back Daniel being a slut for macaroni and cheese?? It's the absolute funniest shit in this movie to me.

[lqwrusso]

ugh pt 2 is gonna crush me

[lqwrusso]

y'all they got me . I'm outsiders posting for real

Im not really into shipping yk I'm not about that life, but something about purly is actually crazy. like girl ................wait..... this is kind of interesting. dumb ass name tho

Shepard's are poc to me (afrolatino) because I kinda didn't know who they were for a bit and if you faceless to me you're poc until proven otherwise 😕 my bad I don't mean to 😕 I'm right though

[lqwrusso]

All my life I've had ships that tear my heart out, I'm a glutton for punishment.

[lqwrusso]

I just really want a scene at a school dance or reunion where there's only 80's music being played, and even though Johnny Lawrence refuses to get out there and do the electric slide, he and LaRusso tear it up when 'Push It' by Salt n Pepa comes on, complete with body rolls and everything, while their children scream in the background

[lqwrusso]

Lawrusso doing karaoke except they're dueting to the song Livin on a Prayer. One of them is singing the actual song and the other is doing the "woah wo wowo woah" and guitar solos.

[lqwrusso]

miss them so much ❤️‍🩹

[lqwrusso]

real conversation they had btw

[lqwrusso]

something about soft touches