#like I get that cobra kai has a problem with having way to many characters already | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

miriadalia · 8 months ago

Text

Things I wanna see in Cobra Kai S6 part 2

Since I'm on a Cobra Kai streak since they dropped the new photos, I want to make a list of things I wish to see in part 2. And then check if they become true 🙏🏻 (I'm writing this before they drop the trailer)

Feel free to add whatever you want <3

Alright, HAJIME!!

1. Kwon's backstory and character development

I don't want him to be a 2D villain. Every character until now has had at least some internal conflict and reasons behind their behaviour (even bullies like Kyler), so please, PLEASE, give the guy an interesting background. If we have to tolerate Daniel and Johnny love-hate every season, I want my little Kdrama too 😂

Also, if they're going to add even more secondary characters (who, according to the leaks, will be kind of villains too), I need them to focus on Kwon first.

2. Tory defending herself from whatever BS the Miyagi Do's will tell her

Yes, she's not well at all after her mother's death and yes, Cobra Kai isn't the way to heal from her wounds... But if I hear one of them getting angry at her or calling her a traitor when none of them went after her, I'll be kicking 540s in my room................

I would also love to watch her train in Korea with the new team, giving Kim a "TAKE THAT B*TCH, who wouldn't have lasted one minute in your dojang back home??" (In season 5 Kim told that to Tory and Devon) and watch her training her hardest and truly fighting and earning her position as captain, not to appear magically in Barcelona as sensei Kreese's pet ('cause I don't think neither Kwon nor Yoon will like that).

They can even do this as flashbacks before each round of the tournament. But... I'm kind of losing hope on this because of the producers' comments. I write it here just in case :(

3. Johnny being a real father to Robby

I understand his main interest is defeating Cobra Kai, especially now that they know Kreese is back. But Robby will need him more than anyone during this tournament: the poor boy has the pression of being the team captain in a televised international competition, he needs to win the Sekai Taikai because that's the only way he could be offered a better future after being in juvie for so long, his girlfriend (ex?) has been MIA only to appear with their nemesis' team........

I've seen an interview where Xolo said Miguel's going to be Robby's main support during part 2. And while I like that, I still feel that, for once in his life, Johnny should step up and put the son he abandoned for so many years first. That would be his REAL redemption arc, more than being sensei for his own version of Cobra Kai.

4. Demetri and Hawk fixing their problems FAST

I understand them both, but their argument seems like the typical post-high school crisis where you have to separate yourself from your lifelong friends because (surprise!) each one wants and must follow their own path and dreams.

So for me it's alright if they solve this with just one conversation after winning together some round during the Sekai Taikai. I don't need something like one of them DYING or ending up in the hospital (though that's probably what will happen to Demetri seeing the X-men-mutants they've chosen as their rivals........).

In short, for me the character arcs of Hawk and Demetri are already complete and do not need more drama. They can become secondary characters, although I love both actors and I'll miss them so much :')

5. Bring back #MiguelSeason 1!!!!

I don't think there's anyone who doesn't want this to be honest haha. But in my case what I mean is I want the concentration and power he had back then, not him playing dirty or seriously injuring someone.

I want FULL POWER Miguel, the ultimate version of this young fighter we saw growing each season, using every style he's learned and making it his own.

And who knows, I won't be mad if he wins after all, but that only if Robby gets an awesome final character arc.

6. Sam and Tory supporting each other even if enemies on the tatami

These girls have already apologised to each other and now Sam understands Tory's situation and mental state without any judgement, so I want Tory to find selfless support in Sam and to learn how to confide in her.

And I want Sam to fully embrace Mr.Miyagi's teachings of forgiveness, balance and strength.

And what better way to do it than by applying them to your former arch-nemesis?

EXTRA POINTS if they fight together against Zara or any other enemy!

7. Silver NOT coming back in this second part...

At least until the end of the last episode.

We have villains already. We have NEW characters (villains?) already. And as much as I like chaos and drama, I don't think it will be easy to follow a story where everyone is against Miyagi Do lol

They can save him for the finale.

... Plus I just can't stand that dude :'), I prefer Kreese as an antagonist all the way.

8. Sassy arguments, teenage drama and funny scenes

I already read that part 2 is gonna be very action-oriented. But Cobra Kai is much more than amazing stunts and choreographies (which I love, don't get me wrong). I just don't want them to forget the potential of having a hotel and a sports park full of troublesome teenagers, with even more troublesome senseis.

They're participating in a hard competition abroad, but that doesn't mean they can't have some comedy scenes here and there like the ones they have in the Valley.

Idk, you have a Korean dude with an anime-looking hair and an American dude with a freaking American flag in his mohawk!!!!! Someone has to make at least a comment about that.

9. The characters eating Spanish food or trying to speak Spanish

This one is personal hahaha

I grew up in Spain so I need to watch them tasting a tortilla or trying to buy something and getting scolded by a Spanish "abuela" (grandma).

BONUS POINTS if Johnny Lawrence drinks the typical beer from there (Estrella Galicia). (Know this won't happen as it would be free advertising haha).

10. Amanda and Carmen being the queens they are, finally happy and in peace as every karate freak (including their respective husbands) are booked and busy at the other side of the world

43 notes · View notes

bonsai-babies · 10 months ago

Text

Something has been missing for a while...

Every year when a new Cobra Kai season was released, I binged as soon as possible, like any fan. However, after the third season and my first hiatus in this fandom, I had the time to better assimilate the show and figure out my attachments and grievances with the show. I realized I really liked Sam, Daniel, Robby, Miguel, and even Johnny (though I always had many problems with his childishness and irresponsibility). I got attached especially to Samantha, who stood out as the type of character strangely placed in an extremely "macho-man" preaching show. I thought of the many interesting possibilities to approach her development as "the legacy kid" and "the love interest" who now had an extremely violent rival who was also a girl with a contrasting energy and story.

The meta-conversation that could've been explored filled my expectations for the seasons ahead. I anxiously waited, season after season, to see more, to see which of the possibilities they would explore. Though season four was interesting, it ended there.

Season five was the biggest disappointment, it was clear they didn't want to do much with her anymore, she didn't have an arc, they teased an arc, and just... didn't do anything with it. Season six part one was the very same. She was there... Nothing particularly personal going on except the crumbs of her relationship development with Tory. Her motivation to fight barely being touched upon, her anxieties about college and what to do with her future completely ignored or forgotten, she's happy just gathering pamphlets to pick a university. No excitement or tension or even a hint of which direction she would like to go or refuses to. They gave her nothing.

I do not hold any expectations that she'll be given substantial stuff anymore by the writing, if she gets to at least be relevant in the mission to bring Tory back from CK I'll be honestly surprised and reasonably content.

I believe I'm not the only one feeling this way, maybe people feel this way about other characters too -- and I would agree with them. It's just something I felt there was missing for a while, something not easy to excuse or forgive because, in this case, we're talking about a legacy kid, Miyagi's granddaughter, Daniel's eldest child... And she gets too little. It's a shame.

#cobra kai #ck #ck critic #sam larusso #samantha larusso #little rant about the hard life of being a fan of an unpopular kid

18 notes · View notes

landslided · 2 years ago

Note

i really haven't interacted w/ cobra kai fandom since i started watching the show like. twelve seconds ago (a few months ago) but its insane that sam gets that much hate that genuinely surprises me so much especially when i think sam && tory are the heir apparent for the future cobra kai -- i.e., the story that starts with the down on her luck sam in the johnny role meeting the successful tory and then navigating their lifelong (gay) rivalry and impact on each other and confronting their shared history the cycles of trauma blah blah etc etc etc. its like the whole skyler white thing just ASTOUNDING how much people just hate women. but also in cobra kai there is a larger problem with "morality" being equated with "badass" instead of johnny like unpacking anything/cobra kai philosophy leading him to where he is in life (not daniel like he blames in season 1) and unlearning/learning things. anyway much frustrations with the show. sorry to hear a lot of the fans also suck

god anon… you might have only been watching the show for a few months but you get it better than the writers themselves.

there is VERY much a problem with cobra kai’s concept of morality, mostly because the show’s perspective and its themes have shifted with the new platform because there is a very clear meaning and message in season 1 (and season 2) for johnny of "you cannot fix any of your problems if you refuse to recognize your part in them and work on them." case in point: miguel hurts sam then hurts robby and finds himself in the same circle of violence johnny was in the karate kid. johnny is at his peak in season 1 and 2 and they lose a lot of what makes him so compelling in later seasons because they just… start making a show about who can hit the hardest. this show is kind of a mindfuck in a lot of ways because there are great things with it but it is also the most frustrating thing on earth and i wish i could pry out the characters with my bare hands.

sexism in shows, especially in shows that cis men consider for them, is so prevalent and stains the art it touches. i haven’t seen breaking bad (it’s on my endless watchlist) but i know that apparently skyler’s crime for the fandom is… being a woman? truly just a wonderful way of watching shows lmao

also god… that samtory plot you just wrote down. yes, yes very much yes. i don’t think the show would ever ever understand that this is where it could be headed because it has lost its sense of awareness but you’re very right, they are the heirs of cobra kai and of johnny and daniel in many ways.

#anon i hope it’s okay to say but i might be in love with you #*asks

3 notes · View notes

domonicriley · 2 months ago

Text

What Effect Will AI Have on Movies?

If you’re on the internet much nowadays, one thing you’ll not have been able to avoid is the topic of AI. Artificial Intelligence, GenAI, or Large Language Models, as it’s also known. Whatever you call it, it’s there: the images and videos, the attention seeking fake posts, the fan films, the arguments for or against it, the outrage when it comes to light it was used to make a film.

For myself, I’m skeptical of the technology, but as I have an interest in movies and TV, I can’t ignore that it’s already affecting them, and that there’s a lot more to come in the future.

Every so often, a popular film will be revealed to have used AI in some way, which then leads to an outcry on social media. The recent poster accompanying the first trailer for Fantastic Four: First Steps was accused of using it, leading Marvel to quickly proclaim that there was no AI anywhere in the artwork. But that doesn’t absolve it from the fact that the previous year, it used it in the creation of opening titles for the Disney+ show Secret Invasion. Also last year, the low-budget indie horror flick Late Night With the Devil ended up making a stir when it came out that several title cards had been made for the fake talk show featured in the movie.

Now there’s The Brutalist, an awards favourite which has already snagged several Golden Globes, but which used Artificial Intelligence to tweak the Hungarian accents sported by some of the (non-Hungarian) cast. The amount of media coverage this film is getting means the question of the tech’s use can’t be ignored.

All of these might seem like small things, and they don’t really amount to much, it’s true. There’s no way AI can replace actors just yet, but how long will that last? It was only a couple of years ago that we were laughing at GenAI that thought humans had three arms or six fingers, now it can do some very accurate replications of humans, and even the cheapest models can easily make stock images of inanimate objects.

In the next five years, as long as the big tech companies continue to pour money and brains into it, it will get more advanced, in the same way all other technology has done, and if other companies, like movie studios, think they can make or save money from using it, they will begin to invest in it too. No matter what, AI is in Hollywood, and it’s not going anywhere, not as long as it’s useful.

Netflix hit Cobra Kai has come to an end, and it turns out this series also made use of the tech, to bring back Mr Miyagi, a character played by Pat Morita in the original Karate Kid, who died in 2005. They used a body double and deepfake to make the body, then used AI to make the voice sound as much like Morita as possible.

Now, this is the kind of situation where you could say AI is acceptable. After all, it’s not much different to the situation of characters like Grand Moff Tarkin in Rogue One, which used a digital Peter Cushing, with mixed effects. If the tech allows you to get a character looking and sounding more like their original actor, then all for the best, surely? Not necessarily.

As I’ve said before, Hollywood has a big problem with nostalgia, relying on it to make money. So many recent movie, like Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Alien: Romulus have brought back deceased actors to “reprise” their roles, and a great many more have used cameos from popular legacy characters to get that quick nostalgia hit. As studios get increasingly desperate to make more franchises spin out as long as they can, they will resort to this more and more, and there’s no reason it would stop there.

We all joke about things like the Stranger Things cast, who are still playing their teenage characters, despite being in their early twenties, well why not just AI them to make them appear younger? Or how about we make the Star Wars trilogy fans wanted, except that it features a recreated Han, Luke and Leia?

This might seem like a stretch, but it’s already been done to an extent with Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian season two, and whether we like it personally or not, that episode was one of the highest rated in the show. Nostalgia might seem cheap and unoriginal, but one thing’s for certain, it still sells.

With the use of this technology, there would be no reason to stop making something just because the actors were too old or had passed, and there would be no need to recast for a prequel.

There are some pretty big ethical questions attached to all of this though. One is that these actors might not want their likenesses to be used in this way, but if they have passed on, they have no say in the matter, and it’s up to their estates. Likewise, background actors were being asked to essentially sell their likeness to studios, so it could be reused in multiple projects. How might this spill over to leading roles, especially for younger actors, desperate to get a break in the industry?

How long will it be before we see movie stars from the Golden Age coming back as a selling point in otherwise prosaic movies? Just a few years ago, there were plans to reanimate James Dean to star in a boiler plate film about a Vietnam War veteran. Thankfully it went nowhere, but there’s sure to be another one along sometime.

A big concern here is what it means for the art and creativity of a movie. We go to watch films because we want to see humanity portrayed onscreen, it’s why we give out awards for astonishing performances, because, much like a painting on canvas, they say something profound.

What the use of AI as in The Brutalist does, is remove some of that human experience, and makes it more to do with what the technology is capable of. Yes, people will say it’s only there to aid the actor, to polish up their speech, but that’s where it starts, not where it ends. Why bother if an actor can do an accent or voice at all, why not just let them speak as they will, and “fix it in post” with AI?

The other big concern, which goes much further than just Hollywood, is what effect the tech will have on human workers, especially on human creators, whether artists, writers, designers, etc. This is a problem for movies, where we are supposed to showcase the very best of human creativity. It’s true that Hollywood has always been at the very best, only half interested in art, with the other half focused on what kind of profit they can make, but that gap has widened now, as the industry fights off more competition from new kinds of entertainment.

If they see a way to either make a saving, or “improve” a product through the use of Artificial Intelligence, then they will do so. For anyone who thinks it will just stop here, take a look at the use of CGI. When it first came to the forefront back in the 1990s, it was used alongside traditional methods like model making and stop-motion, but now it’s almost entirely consumed these skills, and every movie uses some form of computer VFX, often to excess, and often to plug the gaps left by the filmmakers lack of creativity.

AI is starting in the small places and will work its way out. One place I suspect it will be used first is in animation. Right now, there are programs which can expand an image’s background seamlessly, which would have a lot of uses in the medium, not to mention it’s easier to hide the usage, as it doesn’t need to be photorealistic.

Then, I imagine, the next place would be audio. We’ve already seen (or heard) its use here, as mentioned above, and it will probably expand from there. Imagine you need something like a radio announcer to deliver a few seconds of dialogue over the radio in your scene, would it be worth it to hire a voice actor and a studio, bring them in and get them to record it? Or would it be better to just use an AI voice creator instead? Expect to see companies like Eleven Labs credited at the end of movies soon (if they aren’t there already).

Naturally there are a lot of places where the technology will have an appeal, and indie movies is one of them. For an independent movie with a budget one-hundredth of a Hollywood production, this must seem like a free gift, allowing them to create audio, images, and promotional material quickly and cheaply. There’s a big appeal right there for those who don’t have much money, and it’s just another tool to be used, so where’s the harm?

The harm is in the precedent, not least as indie movies should be refuges for disgruntles artists, but any shrugging off of AI here will embolden the bigger studios to start experimenting with the tech.

So, should we boycott?

One thing the internet is very good at is blowing things up out of proportion. That’s not to suggest AI isn’t a concern, just that it’s not a concern everyone shares. Just because it’s a big deal online doesn’t mean it’s a general worry. There might be thousands of people liking anti-AI tweets, but those thousands are spread across the world, and even if people don’t like it, it’s a big leap to start boycotting things, and missing out on your favourite movies and shows.

Not to mention that the internet tries to divide everyone into fiercely opposed groups. For every person denouncing AI, there’s another proclaiming it as a technological revolution, that opens up creativity to everyone, and as one groups voices rise, so does the other pro rata.

Add to this that many people simply can’t spot AI, and know very little about it (million if Facebook is a judge). Unless it’s egregiously bad, there’s no reason why they would know it was there, and its use for a few seconds or more might not seem to justify completely boycotting an otherwise great movie.

The use of Ian Holm’s likeness in Alien: Romulus didn’t harm the film’s performance, though there were many people who didn’t like it.

As long as the big studios think they can make good use of the technology, they will continue to do so, often covertly, only revealing it once the movie’s been released, and the best we can hope for is to stop its worst aspects.

There are a lot of problems associated with AI’s use in writing and developing new entertainment, which I haven’t mentioned here, though I think they deserve a post of their own, at a later date.

Also, the belief that AI will release movies from the grip of the big corporations is largely unfounded. Even if it does allow a few more filmmakers to release their own projects, what’s it worth if there’s no creativity in it? It will also just be moving the control to another big group of companies, in the tech sector. The most likely outcome would be that it simply saturates the market with cheap rip-off or gimmick movies, made in a few days, and released on YouTube to try and make a quick buck.

In truth, like most technologies, it will likely expand its use until we forget about it. Maybe we can try and save creative industries from this, or at least slow its progression. For the sake of entertainment, I hope so

#movies #film #cinema #animation #tv #ai #artificial intelligence #terminator

1 note · View note

queencvbra · 7 months ago

Text

okay I'm gonna talk about That Scene (the Tory & Sam fight that ended with her leaving). and I'm gonna be potentially ranty bc I have been thinking about this A Lot over the past few months and idr if I've said anything about it before on the dash. but I have so, so many problems with that scene and the argument the writers are trying to make here.

listen. I love Johnny to death okay? But he was wrong as hell about letting Tory fight, from every angle. I get the writers wanted the approach of "fighting through the pain" but this? This was not that. It was another form of Cobra Kai's whole "channel your anger and make it your power" thing which is just unhealthy. It has a historical basis, too; the whole idea of Cobra Kai since the first Karate Kid movie is that it is a western corruption of the traditional values of karate, and the most direct display of that is the fact that Cobra Kai karate is NOT karate at all, it's Tang Soo Do, and it was just called karate because karate was a marketable term in that time period, no respect given to the actual art other than how it could be turned into profit.

It's all based on an old mindset that largely cropped in the martial arts scene after western militaries (largely the United States) started incorporating various east asian martial arts techniques into their military training. That part of the show where they have Kreese learn Tang Soo Do while stationed in Korea is somewhat accurate (minus the dramatic special ops shit obviously), and my own family has actual experience with this, as this is actually how my uncle's father learned Taekwondo in the first place; he was stationed in Korea during the Vietnam war and taught martial arts. In a lot of cases these "hardass" (sarcastic) military guys would come home and take that "karate" and completely commercialize it, stripping away all of the actual ideology behind it to replace it with western militaristic ideals. Which of course fostered extremely toxic environments when the point of these martial arts was always supposed to be balance and discipline, not just an outlet to beat the shit out of people when you're angry, and that's why that mentality is present and still exists to this day, because it became *that* prevalent. This is literally the basis of Cobra Kai and part of the writers' thesis in this show was supposed to be deconstructing that, yet it seems they keep backpedaling and making it seem "cool" when they need it to be because it appeals to a certain demographic.

And yes, this stuff being in the show and reflected in a positive way DOES affect what people will do in real life, and there is empirical evidence to support that. Seeing martial arts on screen is enough to inspire people. There was a spike in the popularity of martial arts after the original Karate Kid movies. There was a spike in popularity after Bruce Lee became a star in the west. There is currently a spike now because of things like Cobra Kai and the UFC becoming so popular. But not everyone comes in with a healthy, learning mindset, and that happens a lot more when the *unhealthy* mindset is advertised and encouraged on screen instead of challenged. My uncle has kicked students out before because it was easy to tell that all they wanted to do was beat people up and try to mimic their favorite MMA stars. I think Stingray is genuinely the perfect caricature of that phenomenon irl and the writers really cooked when they wrote him, because there really are people who act like that, who want to learn martial arts to feel "cool" and "powerful" for all the wrong reasons.

And I think, from the standpoint of the writing itself, it's a detriment and unfair to Johnny's character that even after all this time, he still hasn't unlearned this mindset and is actively advocating for it when the whole point over the course of this show was supposed to be showing that this is a horrible and unhealthy mindset; it's clear they regressed him to that again just to put him into conflict with Daniel once more and sow more dissent into the group again and give Tory a reason to walk out. In a martial arts setting, you should never take out your anger on another person, and a sensei especially should never allow or advocate for that to happen. I don't care if this is just a show, this is such a stupid argument to make from a writer's perspective and also potentially harmful for any impressionable dumbasses who think they can just go learn martial arts so they can enact their violent fantasies on others as an anger outlet. Mutual trust is such an important thing to have with anyone you spar, and these people join with the intent to purposefully abuse that trust so they can feel like they're a bunch of tough guys. Focus is such an important aspect in martial arts training and discipline, too, and if your head is clouded (especially by that much anger) you are more likely to not only hurt your sparring partner / opponent but also yourself. Allowing that would have been pure negligence and unhealthy for those students in more ways than one.

Because what would have happened if they let Tory fight Sam like that? Nothing good. It wouldn't have helped her. It wouldn't have made her feel better. Her mom fucking died. That much grief and anger and sadness is not something you can just punch away. Sure, if you're angry and you show up to class upset, you can take it to the bag and let out some steam, but that is NOT the same thing as directing that towards another person. She would have hurt Sam. (She was already hurting Sam and they were barely into the match!) Worst case scenario, she could have potentially *killed* Sam. Do you know how easy it is to critically injure or even kill someone by accident? You could put out an eye, break a jaw, give them a concussion, hell you could even get brain damage from something like getting choked out for too long. This is why you train for *safety* first, and everything else is secondary. That's always been my problem with how much shit gets allowed in the show. And I don't mean Johnny's silly OSHA violations. Like, it's goofy, it's funny to see on television, I don't mind *that*, but after so many seasons it's kind of a nuisance to see when it gets taken THIS far, beyond the jokes and funny scenarios and into something serious where the same mindset carries over.

Ultimately, from the standpoint of what actually would have been the right thing to do in that situation, this is not a "different perspectives" thing. There is *no* argument to make here, and the writers trying to pull the same "well they both have a point" bullshit again is wrong, because no they fucking don't, and I'm tired of this being the basis of every single conflict between Johnny and Daniel in the series. Sometimes things ARE just black and white. And also, purely from the perspective of Tory's character development and arc? She doesn't need yet another person telling her to hold on to her anger and center her karate around those emotions. She needs someone to show her that it's okay to let it go.

#ck critical tw #⚡ ooc. ── ❝ 𝘖𝘩 𝘯𝘰 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘪. ❞#it's been months and I can't stop thinking about it so I have to do my little rant actually bc I'm just?????#that was one of my least favorite scenes they've ever put in this show. one of the most frustrating to me for sure.#and a big part of why I'm so worried about where they're going with tory's arc if THIS is the mindset the writers are advocating for #this is not johnny hate btw I love him but I do hate how the writers handle him sometimes #it feels like they are just too scared to let him grow beyond himself sometimes because they are afraid they'll ruin appeal to #a very particular demographic that tends to dominate the viewership #who WANT to live out their alpha male fantasies by projecting onto johnny #the writers cater to that demo way too fucking much #and it's made so much worse by the fact that his character is so clearly ready to grow past that shit #but they only let him do it when they can write it as something 'funny' or 'badass' and never let him actually show vulnerability #'johnny wanting to be a better dad so he practices on a pack of beer' is their idea of character growth for him and that's so???#it's frustrating beyond belief. he deserves better writing.

1 note · View note

variousqueerthings · 3 years ago

Text

a long text about something that some people have been able to say in simple sentences

Johnny may be a betrayal of character arc, but Daniel is a betrayal of themes

Okay, first thing here is that I said before that it was going to be hard for me to explain why I have such mixed feelings about Daniel’s arc in s5, because there’s so much tying into his story, and that’s sort of it, right? back to basics, this is Daniel’s story, because everything connects to him in the end -- which means that anything else that doesn’t work ties back to what I struggle with in his story.

So I will make the choice here to try and leave the other characters (except for Miyagi a bit) out of it as far as is possible for someone like me. Because otherwise this would end up becoming an essay about the whole flipping show and how all the characters mirror back at Daniel, who is the carrier of the Legacy (both in-show and out-of-show)

Secondly, apologies to @gjdraws I can no longer tell what you said and what I said, but just assume that these are not all entirely my words -- there is probably also a bunch I read on others’ posts, apologies for the repetition you’re very smart people! -- generally apologies for the repetition in the text, I try my best, I’m not being graded on this

Third thing is that while I may occasionally be talking character arc, a lot of what I’m speaking to here is what I think about theme. Technically there are character beats that on their own could be cool, but as a whole are incoherent, because they haven’t been earned and/or are couched in Cobra Kai’s issues with Theme

Fourth thing is to acknowledge (speaking of themes) that some people in this fandom called that the show doesn’t like Miyagi season/s ago, and I in my sweet naivety internally went “no, surely not – they may not completely understand the ethos that created Miyagi’s character, but they’re trying to grapple with it. Daniel’s whole story after all is figuring out how to handle the enormity of Miyagi’s legacy passed onto him and how to honour it and what his philosophy of pacifism and non-violence means for his own life, especially now he’s faced with a recurrence of the stories that led him to Miyagi in the first place” *takes deep breath*

So, at this point, I concede… the show really doesn’t like Miyagi, in the sense that it thinks his philosophy and the narrative that led to that philosophy is quaint and naive and silly (and not cool) at best... and I think once I get this out of my system, maybe I’ll be able to get back into the bits of it that I like playing with, the stuff it promised and set-up -- a lack of pay-off doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of interesting Stuff.

SO LET’S GET INTO SOME STUFF:

I’ve started calling it “The Tension of Daniel” – namely, how do white straight cis men of a certain Type who love the sports drama coming-of-age movie The Karate Kid come to terms with their main character being a skinny little mouthy kid who isn’t like Rocky or all those other guys who deserve to win because… well, look at those muscles! (Shhh, never mind that Rocky is about love, it’s his muscles!)

That Tension exists aaaaall the way through Cobra Kai, as many of us have called on numerous occasions. Daniel inhabits a role often given to female leads. His emotions are denied or made out to be ridiculous or hysterical. He “pretends” to have the moral high-ground, but he’s actually hypocritical as compared to the salt-of-the-earth direct talks-with-his-fists Johnny Lawrence. He’s just not quite as “cool” in his messiness and feelings. He is simply not as much of A Man in the “heroic lead of an American franchise type” as is comfortable. But of course he’s also not a woman (somethingsomething witness gender-essentialism in action).

Now the problem with Daniel not being as cool as Johnny (who has the decency to at least get blackout drunk and punch things when he feels things), is that he’s also one of the two heroes and he and Johnny are meant to find common ground. He’s the person with the most story backing him up (which means that in earlier seasons when his POV isn’t being respected by other characters we can fall back on the movies and remind ourselves why he’s reacting in xyz ways, even if the show itself doesn’t grace the audience with that perspective).

THE WRITERS DON’T LIKE DANIEL (YEAH YEAH WE KNOW):

-- Here’s where, instead of writing another 2000 words, I would redirect you to multiple posts written about how while Johnny’s narrative went from trying to deconstruct his story, Cobra Kai instead fell for how cool it was for everything to be solved with violence, provided it was at the right moment. (I have written several and I warrant you currently can’t spit in the Johnny Lawrence tag without coming across many more).

That ethos is the same for Daniel now, except rather than thinking he’s cool (they don’t) and that being the flaw in their writing him, they’re trying to “fix” him, to make him a more comfortable character for them.

Which means that by the end of this story Daniel isn’t trying to do what he seems to have been trying to do for the entire rest of it (including much of season 5!!!!) -- trying to understand Miyagi’s philosophy and reconstruct it for his own understanding of the world, while grieving him and honouring him, while also having the pain of the events that initially brought him to Miyagi dredged up, except this time without his help – it’s to see that what he really needs to solve his issues is to finally be a fucking man about them.

And for much of season five, this isn’t even the case: For the first half Terry Silver stalks and terrifies Daniel on multiple occasions. Several people have talked about the ways it appears sexual, like an abusive ex, like Daniel is framed in a way women often are – physically completely overwhelmed and disbelieved and/or minimized almost regardless of whom he goes to, and unable to speak about what he’s going through (almost like a survivor). @jenpsaki and @bobakick and @youandthemountains and @deputychairman (I’m sure there are others).

The difference between Daniel-now and Daniel-of-previous-seasons is that much of the menace is being shown onscreen (at last!) so Daniel is seemingly being validated by the narrative (at last!) -- here the obvious point that never is Daniel given the opportunity to really... talk about it. And he likely never will, because it’s all handled now, right?

Please let me know who pointed out the fascinating gendered role-reversal of Amanda disbelieving Daniel until Jessica backs up his narrative + actually gets to say a hell of a lot more than Daniel ever does.

But at the end of the story he wins against Terry in a fight, total role-reversal of episode 5, his wife and kids (family) watching on – no Johnny of course, not even Chozen. They weren’t important to Daniel’s journey I guess. They’re not “really” family in this context.

He’s risen above his original writing where he was wishy-washy and annoying and cared about complex conflict resolutions and he’s met Johnny halfway (which would be idk… still an alcoholic who’s trying to make it work I guess, but crucially correct when he thought that violence was the answer all along, even though that was what his story was meant to be deconstructing).

COOL DANIEL

I think this Very Cool Scene of Daniel finally winning comes at the cost of everything that makes him interesting to fans like us to begin with – all the unpalatably non-traditional-masculine traits that have made him up since day one: His pursuit of non-violence even when that’s a struggle, his complicated way of expressing his emotions, his lack of need to prove his masculinity in order to be worthy, and his past as a victim of others’ needs to prove the same, and a man who made him believe for a brief moment that he was special and how dealing with the aftermath of that + return of that man has sent him to some bad places that he’s trying to be honest about himself with. If anything he’s the character who is most self-aware (and most hyper-critical) of his own ability to make bad choices sometimes.

And despite Daniel’s new upgrade into masculinity-a-dude-audience-can-finally-root-for, the initial Tension is still there throughout most of the season: in the way that he’s never ever given a scene to properly talk about any of it in his own words (well, in s4 I guess but we never saw it so RIP -- sidenote I do want to know how many monologues Johnny gets vs Daniel) and in the way he doesn’t have the power to tell the story on his terms/drive the narrative (in the first half this makes sense – he’s on the back-foot, he doesn’t know how to defeat Silver, he wants to be protected, but in the last episode???):

In the last episode, Mike, Chozen, and Johnny decide to randomly attack Silver without Daniel’s consent (and don’t even end up bringing Daniel along). They set in motion the events that lead to the fight, not Daniel, not even Silver. There’s nothing that has happened thus far that suggests Daniel has recovered from what’s happened to him -- I acknowledge here the callback to Miyagi scene and getting to train with Johnny and Chozen, but none of that is about facing his fear. It’s a good step to something that could pay-off later, but it never does because Johnny and Chozen aren’t there in the final episode -- never mind come to the conclusion that the way to really take down Silver is to beat him up. He doesn’t have a say over where that confrontation happens.

On the surface he’s victorious, but narratively he’s really just following the beats set out by everyone else, right up until the last Moment when he magically defeats Terry, because now it’s decided he’s allowed to.

WHICH BRINGS ME TO MIYAGI:

I know some people made their peace seasons ago that whatever Miyagi mattered to the original narrative is almost entirely absent from this one, and maybe that’s what I need to do to start the process of doing surgery on this show to make it work for me.

But before I can do that, I have to ask what the hell is the point of Daniel’s journey? If it’s not about finding his way to Miyagi’s lessons? If it’s not to find a way to face the fears that have been haunting him for 35 years, which Miyagi was trying to help him with? If it’s not for Miyagi’s legacy to influence the whole darn narrative from beyond the grave, but most strongly through Daniel, his adopted son?

Taking the idea that “one day Daniel will do karate his way” is one thing, but it doesn’t apply to what’s happening in the final fight, because Daniel isn’t fighting to understand himself or what Miyagi meant or anything Miyagi-related. The story isn’t answering this conceit, it’s talking about something completely different with the fight, Miyagi-as-theme has looong abandoned the building.

So why does Daniel have to solve his problems this way? What is it thematically (not “deservedly” not “coolness-factor” but simply what questions does it answer?)

Is Miyagi-do too weak a philosophy for Daniel to find himself in? Is violence to solve your problems only wrong if it’s the bad guys doing it, but fine if practically the exact same things are done by the good guys at the right time? – and especially LaRusso who before this came off as a bit as a pansy, despite his (much more thematically interesting) fight against Kreese, but now he’s proved he’s just as good a fighter as Terry Silver, which was what he really always needed to get over his fear

At the end neither Johnny nor Chozen (and I would say it ought to have been Johnny, but I would have taken Chozen) were even there to support him in any meaningful way, so it’s not really about the family you make and their helping you stand up on your feet.

Nobody’s honking anyone’s noses anymore.

Nobody’s stepping out of the way to let the aggressor punch the glass in their own blind rage.

No mercy was in fact the correct philosophy, Kreese was right from the get-go, his problem was just that he was the bad guy. Thank goodness now the good guys are enacting it -- violence, if done by the right people, is good after all

CONCLUSION:

Daniel, to me, is the most embedded example of what Cobra Kai does over and over, which is taking a narrative that’s thematically pointing in a particular direction, and then veering last minute into a completely different conclusion, usually what they consider more visually spectacular – that is to say, a fight

Daniel was given so much to work with this season and the conclusion of his arc: beat the other man until he can’t get up again.

If anything this show is an ouroboros. It started eating its own themes in sacrifice of “badass fight scene after badass fight scene” until it could no longer write characters who don’t solve their problems with violence, because then it would have to admit that its growing reliance of violence as a tool to show any character growth was in direct opposition to its original themes of exploring and deconstructing the very violence it now presents without question… until all you’re left with is Daniel, who completes his character arc through violence

---

SOME NOTES

1. there’s also a separate thing pointed out to me by GJdraws, where Carmen is the only character who never enacts violence and is weak and Daniel is weak until he enacts violence, at which point he becomes badass

2. another point I loosely made about Sam on her post, which was that she wants to “leave karate” to find herself but the narrative pulls her back in, because if Sam wasn’t doing karate it wouldn’t be able to think of something for her to do at all (one symptom of the ouroboros).

3. funnily enough, despite overall hating far more of Johnny’s arc this season, he actually got to have the catharsis I was hoping for Daniel and for him: when he fought Kreese in s3 he did it out of rage and fear and oh so many mixed emotions and he lost (he lost because Robby was following right in his footsteps and he accidentally hurt him), and then later on he got beaten up again by Terry, in front of Kreese. His winning moment is telling Kreese in prison that he’s going to erase everything about him – and at that moment he’s supported by Daniel, just like he was during his fight with him – that’s some good subversion of the roles the two of them play

4. amazingly, I managed to stick to my guns and not bring Terry into this beyond certain bits, but it’s not lost on me that after episode five he does... basically nothing. He opens some dojos and hires a strict sensei and trains some kids, but he doesn’t actually enact any massively evil plans, he just waits around until some drunk guys break into his home. it would have been easy to run with what’s already there and have him spiral into his own maw (was that not what ouroboros was meant to be about????? violence eventually eats itself). Terry is ultimately self-destructive, just like Kreese when he punched the glass all those years ago. That’s... the themes are right there??????? Terry’s kind of flipping tragic, why not let him be that (at least TIG knows)

5. and I didn’t really speak to the pacing, because I was talking about themes, but while I can forgive rushed pacing if one isn’t sure of a renewal, why start introducing new characters and half-assed racist lore in the back-half of the season instead of concentrating all your energy on the core of the characters arcs?

sure, maybe Daniel could have fought Terry again and there be emotional resonance, I’m not saying the ability to write that didn’t exist, but there was no narrative build-up to it, which adds to the disconnectedness of it all. Why is he fighting Terry now? I don’t know. Was it a fight that made sense for either of their characters? No.

6. I think where I’m at is beginning to find the bits of shiny stuff that I want to play with -- if I know why something didn’t work for me, I can reconstruct it in a way that it does. the absence of something is what I want to make present. the flawed enacting of a genuinely intended theme is still giving the tools to continue to play with said theme.

The Tension of Daniel still remains in full force and that is interesting to work with

#daniel larusso #ck negativity #ck meta #cobra kai #ck #cobra kai spoilers #cks5 #cobra kai s5

119 notes · View notes

demetriandelibinaryboyfriends · 3 years ago

Text

Season 4, Episode 9: An Extremely Chaotic and Incoherent Review

The Good:

Ah hey Daryl! What's up! I missed you!

That IS the same dude from the S1 AVT right??? Like I'm not insane, right???

I wonder how much Cobra Kai pays to be one of the extras who plays a high school karate enthusiast in the AVT audience

Looking at career options here

Aight that was a MUCH shorter "Eli in Miyagi-Do" training montage than I had hoped for, but...it's something??? I guess???

At least we get one???

The blue fog lighting MD runs through is pretty damn neat

Also wanna point out that Eli's overall theme color has gone from blue to red to purple to BACK to blue, as per joining MD

Which is, you know, pretty consistently DEMETRI'S theme color

Like I shit you not, like 90% of the things I see this fucker wearing have SOME blue in them

You count how many many blue-less outfits he wears throughout the show and I'm betting it's like...under 10

Anyways point being, he and Eli matchy-matchy again just like they did in S1

Literally would be poetic cinema to use this as a means of hinting that Eli is in love with Demetri but I GUESS they really ain't gonna utilize visual foreshadowing in what would be a truly ingenious way

THEIR LOSS

ALSO Demetri and Eli run in next to each other!!!! Look I'll dig whatever Elimetri scraps I can out of the garbage bin okay

I am but a humble feral raccoon on the lookout for my next meal, my greedy little raccoon hands primed and ready to seize my gay morsels and devour them like a decadent feast

Love how Yasmine flew all the way back from Australia to grind on Demetri for a few hours only to yeet back out of town just in time to miss a huge event that is enormously important to her boyfriend and literally all his friends

If Yasmine was really as perfect of a girlfriend as the show seems to want us to think, she would have made an effort to stay for the AVT, send tweet

Or at LEAST warned Demetri at prom that she still wouldn't be able to go to the AVT??? Despite being back in town for prom???

ALSO if she was there somewhere she'd be with Moon, considering these fine young fucking lesbian ladies are basically attached at the hip

Funny, that

On the topic of Moon, though...okay, I know she only is at the AVT so she can later heal poor Eli with a het kiss, and this does indeed feel me with a deep and unchecked rage, BUT regardless I think it's really sweet that she's presumably going to platonically support both Demetri and Eli

Also the fact that Moon has gone from going to watch karate WITH Demetri to going to watch Demetri DO karate is both hilariously ironic and super wholesome

Like the CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

Also always love to see Demetri and Moon's friendship!!! It's so pure, I can't ;_;

Wanna point out that when Cobra Kai comes in, Demetri turns and SCOWLS at them and leans a little bit in front of Eli. Call be off my fucking rocker but it looks just a teens bit protective

I mean he's definitely giving them the evil eye either way, he's like "this is the dojo of horror and fuckery and it's an attack against me personally" and you know what? He's right

Like the amount of times Cobra Kai has caused problems for Demetri in particular over the course of the past couple years is kind of incredible

NOT EAGLE FANG TRAINING WITH FUCKING CINDERBLOCKS

I mean it's not like that wouldn't be effective for strength training but it is hysterical

ONLY Johnny Lawrence would brag about "pummeling ever-loving the crap out of people while the crowd cheered", and I love him very much for it

Kreese and Silver are very scary, 11/10

AH THERE IT IS, LAST NAME REVEAL TIME

Love that Dem's canonically Greek!!! I remember some of my fandom friends headcanoning that and I'm happy it's officially a thing now :D

DEMETRI WITH THE KATAS HOLY SHIT

THOSE HARDCORE KARATE SHOUTS

I ascended to another plane of existence upon viewing that

As per usual, I am quick to fall in love with utterly unavailable, utterly uninterested, and utterly gay men

Okay we get like a 2 second shot of the other Miyagi Dos watching and Eli looks DELIGHTED

He is SO into that shit, goddamn

Same Energy as Eli breaking the board at valley fest and Demetri just being like "oh fuck I'm gay"

Right after the skills competition, it pans over to Dem and Eli talking in the MD group--Dem's prolly tryna reassure him ;___;

"The tigher the vices around Cobra Kai's metaphorical balls" HOLY SHIT DEVON I LOVE YOU

Aight idk what Carrie's doing here, but it's funny, so I'll take it

A general observation but both Demetri and Eli look STRESSED AF watching each other fight : O

They're both so very overprotective, god bless

It's just--it's the constant anxiety each of them have that their person is gonna get even a little bit hurt is what does it in for me chief

Especially bad for Eli, considering the, uh...Golf N Stuff incident

Like this man will simply break if he ever has to see Demetri be in that much pain again

Their gay little faces when either of them wins a match, my GOD

Like the pure, unbridled JOY!!!! Love these karate boyfriends!!!

ELI CHEERING ON SAM AAAAAAAAAAAA

They've come so far from S3 and I am very happy for them ;__;

Okay that was actually a bitchin montage, and the Carrie Underwood background music went with it weirdly well

Happy to see my boys Nate and Bert get some badass moments too!!

MY BOY DEMETRI ALEXOPOULOS MADE IT TO THE QUARTERFINALS

I AM SO VERY PROUD

Also not Demetri and Eli standing so close they're practically holding hands in the quarterfinals shot

Like when are these fuckers not nearly pressed up against each other like clingy puppies, I swear

"YEEEEAHHHHHH DEMETRI" that's deadass the happiest I've seen this fucker in like 2 seasons

It's almost like Demetri's the light of his life or something

Also VERY delighted to see him combining the "Hawk" over-the-top enthusiasm with the "Eli" wholesomeness and loyalty

Say what you will about Eli switching dojos, but by god, he is starting to be happy again!!!

And Eli needs to be in an environment where he can heal and work past his demons at his own pace, which Johnny Lawrence, much as I love him, is not always the best sensei for XD

Love how Kyler shows up knowing the easiest way to try and kill Eli's spirit and make him lose focus is to threaten Demetri

Like Eli was getting pretty into the tournament and kicking ass before then, but as soon as Kyler implies he could and/or WILL fuck up Demetri??? He immediately starts worrying and falls back into the old timid, anxious Eli persona

Adds another layer to it when you realize Kyler's probably been bullying Eli and Dem for years--and for basically all of that time, Dem was the only protector Eli had. Demetri was Eli's only "safe person" for a really long time, so of course threatening him will put Eli on edge and make him feel like he's not safe.

And Kyler calling Eli "Lip" basically confirms he's trying to tap into the weak-willed, bullied kid he was before karate--which, of course, he does by reminding Eli how he used to push around him and the only person he had in his corner back then.

Anyways, all that to say Kyler knows Dem and Eli's relationship is deep and long-standing enough that threatening Dem could be enough to completely break Eli, just as Eli was starting to build himself back up again

It's incredibly fucked up!!! But also a testament to how close Demetri and Eli were back in the day, if Kyler was able to like...exploit their bond to try and destroy Eli's confidence and be that frighteningly precise and successful with it

Okay okay okay okay so as angry as I am about H*wkM**n I do find it absolutely hysterical that Moon said the exact same thing to Eli that Demetri did, but Moon got to kiss him because she's a girl, and ya know. Something something comphet.

Like, if this is "love interest" dialogue that is enough to warrant a kiss...we're basically getting confirmation that if Demetri was female, he would be Eli's love interest

The only reason the writers aren't putting Eli and Demetri together is because they're scared of offending the homophobic side of the fanbase, and in short they all belong at Weenie Hut Junior's

Maybe even Super Weenie Hut Junior's

The ultimate tragedy of conservatives who hate gay people

Demetri's little clap on the back, he's such a proud boyfriend!!!

So we went from Eli calling Demetri a "FUCKING NERD" to Eli vowing to "win this whole FUCKING thing" for Demetri and his dojo??? Now that's what I call a fucking CHARACTER ARC

CIMENNNNNAAAAA

YEAH KICK HIS ASS ELI!!!

Lol get fucked Kyler

Eli beating his ass was SO long overdue

Demetri clapping and cheering in the background when Eli wins because Demetri's SO FUCKIN PROUD and also in love

Not Piper being a catty mean bitch to Sam

Anyways Moon adores catty mean bitches and is therefore secretly in love with Yasmine, send tweet

Moon dun got a TYPE and the more of this show I watch, the more I’m like. There’s just no way she COULDN’T be into Yasmine

I MEAN IF IT’S MEAN LESBIANS YOU WANT

Anyways

HELL YEAH SAM KICK SOME ASS GIRL

Love to see her using Eagle Fang!!! Truly the chaos gremlin potential is endless and I support Sam LaRusso every step of the way

On the highest of keys I hope she ends up joining Eagle Fang actually, or whatever dojo Johnny is sensei-ing for

The irony of Daniel LaRusso's kid being in Johnny Lawrence's dojo would be too funny

Plus she could get to be with her mans!

Good on Sam for standing up for Johnny and EF again! Maybe one of these days it'll actually stick and Daniel will stop being self-righteous and vaguely irritating for two seconds

YAYA IS AN ICON

She simply cannot go to a karate tournament without getting totally fucking stoned first and I have to respect that

ROBBY AND KENNY'S FRIENDSHIP AUGH

I'M GETTING TOO MANY FEELS

They really came for my heart huh

Robby immediately feeling guilty for Kenny getting hurt ;___;

Tory checking in on Robby <3

Overall very happy we got to see a softer side of Robby AND Tory this season, it's honestly beautiful

AW, Daniel congratulating Miguel and wishing him luck <3 Love these two's relationship!!! Also gives me hope that any conflict between Sam and Miguel won't be permanent. I feel like if they had broken up or were having a serious fight, Daniel probably would pick up on it and wouldn't seek out Miguel. Like it would be kinda weird to go talk to your daughter's ex/strained bf???

Bottom line is that if Daniel still mentally views Miguel as his future son-in-law, I have a feeling that Sam and Miguel will be all right in the end lol

Miguel calling Hawk/Eli "Eli" in passing is something that can be so PERSONAL

Goes to show that Eli no longer feels the need for the "Hawk" mask with ALL his friends, not just Demetri

He's learning to embrace ALL the parts of himself and not rely on a facade to feel good about himself!!! Love that for him!!!

"I'm not exactly thrilled to be fighting my friend" NEITHER AM I ELI

COME FOR MY HEART WHY DON'T YOU AVT

Love Demetri's look of concern too

Like his two best friends are about to throw down and he's worried about either of them getting hurt

"Doesn't help that no one's ever beaten Miguel either" ah, so I see Dem's slightly more concerned about Eli getting hurt because he's in love with him. Typical XD

Also deeply ironic

Eli be like "Finally, a worthy opponent!!! Our battle will be legendary!!!"

Lol I see what you did there, with the Coyote Creek callback

I'M STILL ANXIOUS AND UPSET THOUGH

WHY MUST THE BROS FIGHT

AW, THEIR HANDSHAKE

I'M SOBBING

AUGH this Johnny-Miguel montage is making me emotional ;__;

MIGUELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

ELI MOUTHING MIGUEL'S NAME

DEMETRI LOOKING ABSOLUTELY DEVASTATED

Someone help me, these three's friendship is gonna kill me

Miguel's a lucky boi, his two besties love him so very very much

BUT SO DO I PLEASE BE OKAY MIGUEL

The Bad:

Okay okay okay okay I DO appreciate the one shot we got of Eli being SUPER into Demetri's kata routine, but I want MORE dammit

Like show the man being turned on to the level Demetri was at valley fest

We all damn well KNOW he would be, c'mon

SPEAKING OF WHICH

You show Demetri holding a board and Eli punching it in half, and then have the AUDACITY to not pan over to Demetri's expression???

Please I wanted to see him be turned on as all hell

Like it would have been the most hilarious Valley Fest callback and everything!!!

How dare you deprive me of this!!!

Well at least I know in my heart that Demetri was having an even bigger gay awakening than before

Ah, yes. Just what we need. More screentime for the AVT board members -__-

SIR I AM HERE FOR KARATE FIGHTS

Okay, so like. Aside from it physically paining me every time I have to watch Daniel watch his ex karate son be an evil little traitorous meow meow, I feel like they're going a direction I very much do not like with the Daniel-Robby animosity

While Daniel does have every right to call Robby out here (and Robby has the right to call Daniel out on thinking his way is the only way), I'm worried that the show just...isn't going to let these two eventually reconcile and fix their relationship??? Like I hate that they seem to be moving in the direction of Daniel giving up on Robby and Robby being forced to just deal with his subpar biological parents -_-

And while I don't think Daniel is obligated to forgive Robby for betraying MD, I feel like it's kinda in his nature to do so??? And that's definitely what Mr. Miyagi would have taught him too

And like...the guy loves Robby, at the end of the day! I feel like no matter how mad he got, Daniel LaRusso would always come around to his surrogate karate son in the end

Honestly I'm rooting for these two to fix their relationship WAY more than Johnny and Robby. Like Johnny barely TRIES with Robby, but Daniel really did do the most to give him a better life and try to help him find himself for a while

Like yes, Daniel let Robby down in the end by not trying harder to get Robby out of Cobra Kai, BUT

At the end of the day, Daniel and Robby had an IMMENSELY healthier and more loving father-son dynamic than Johnny and Robby ever did

ANYWAYS what I'm trying to say here is that if Robby reconciles with Johnny but NOT Daniel, despite Daniel overall being an immensely better karate dad, I'm going to be very angry

I'm hoping that Daniel and Robby's spat here is just a bump in the road and they'll eventually be back on good terms, but I have a bad feeling it's just going to push them further apart so Robby is ultimately forced to run back to Johnny

Anyways please don't give me painful Daniel and Robby scenes unless they're going to eventually lead to happy Daniel and Robby scenes ;__;

Oh no oh god oh fuck now you've gone and done it

You've made me rant about the absolute garbagefire that is H*wkM**n and now chances are you won't be able to shut me up for at least a few weeks

Okay so for STARTERS

You've heard it before I'm sure but Moon is LITERALLY NOT SAYING ANYTHING THAT DEMETRI HASN'T ALREADY SAID

"I know you think that mohawk defined who you are, but it didn't. Not to me." = "You're not defined by your haircut, you know"

"I liked your energy! And your confidence!" = "YOU'RE BATMAN! YOU'RE THE HAWK!"

Something something gotta help the poor bird get his confidence back

Something something "this is who you are!"

We're literally doing THE SAME THING OVER AGAIN

And oh, what, now it's supposed to be all heartwarming that she's calling him Eli??? Demetri was calling him Eli the ENTIRE GODDAMN TIME

Like her not using a nickname somehow magically makes this NOT the most shallow relationship in the entire world

These fuckers have literally nothing in common, sorry??? Like she's into flowers and spiritual stuff and Eli's into geeky sci-fi, movies, and karate??? I have not seen ONE bit of common ground between them the ENTIRE show

Sorry but the "Opposites Attract" thing only works insofar as "opposites" means CONTRAST--interesting (and successful) relationships have two people who balance each other out in certain respects, but also establish a deep connection centered around common interests and values

You know, like ELI AND DEMETRI, FOR FUCKING INSTANCE???

And like. H*wkM**n even falls apart at the "common values" level because like. Moon is an extreme pacifist. Eli absolutely fucking adores fighting. How how HOW are they not going to get aggravated with each other over the long term???

And before you say "but Demetri doesn't like fighting either!" NOPE! Not true anymore, actually! He said he was really excited for the AVT, which indicates to me he's actually grown to like fighting and karate quite a bit!

Also ffs, "I liked you for your energy and your confidence" basically confirms that Moon was specifically attracted to the overdramatic, macho facade that Eli put on as "Hawk" which is like

NOT the whole picture at ALL

Like yes, some of "Hawk" was Eli's genuine personality shining through as he gained more confidence

But a lot of it was him acting how he felt he had to to protect himself from bullies and trying to mimic people who seemed cooler, more badass, and more "together" than him (mainly Johnny and Miguel)

We've never gotten ANY indication that Moon would be into Eli's nerdier and substantially less "cool" side

Other than her laughing at "dEmEtRi aNd ElI, bInArY bRoThErS!" I guess

And judging from Eli's reaction, that is NOT a side of his personality he usually let her see

Point being that throughout a lot of Eli and Moon's relationship, Eli was putting on a pretty heavy facade--doesn't really make sense to rekindle a relationship that was only maintained through Eli being an inauthentic version of herself

And these two barely fucking interacted all season, aside from Moon complimenting Eli's hair once. We seriously have no evidence at all that she was romantically interested in the more authentic, laid-back purple-haired Hawk, and not just like...projecting cocky, macho S1-S2 Hawk onto him. Since, y'know, that not-entirely-genuine Hawk/Eli is the one she was interested in. And now, she's ever so conveniently interested in this new version of Eli after, uhhhh...talking to him a couple times and taking pity on him after he's sad at the tournament, I guess???

ALSO I want to point out that Moon has shown absolutely NO romantic interest in Eli since they broke up, like

Literally when does she EVER indicate she has lingering feelings, or might be interested in rekindling the relationship??? She's actively annoyed with him in S3, and in S4 she doesn't really treat Eli any differently than Demetri or Miguel

And no, complimenting his hair does not fucking count as showing romantic interest, she was literally just being polite???

It read like a completely platonic interaction to me--as I've mentioned before, I think any awkwardness is easily chocked up to them being exes and, as Hawk outright said, they're "just getting used to being friends again"

Emphasizing that since S2, she has not treated Hawk any different than Demetri and Miguel

Except in S3 when, you know. She actively disliked him.

Also she completely fucking ignored him at the prom to hang out with Demetri and Yasmine, just throwing that out there

Like he was standing sadly off to the side and Moon didn't even NOTICE

Because, you know, she was busy dancing with women and sneaking glances at Yas

Like if you're into someone, you'd be MUCH more aware of them than that

And try to include them maybe???

Point being that all the evidence that we have so far points to Moon having long since moved on

Like yes, she's willing to forgive Eli and rekindle a friendship--she's a kind and friendly person, and it's in her nature to want harmony. But wanting to DATE Eli again???

WHEN THE HELL has Moon been shown to want this???

And like...if she didn't even notice him sadly standing off in the corner at prom, how in the hell are we expected to believe she's going to be attentive to him and his emotions???

Like she didn't even show concern as his FRIEND at the prom

Meanwhile, y'know. Demetri WENT WITH HIM to keep him company, and at least apologized kind of for running off with Yasmine

And now we're supposed to believe Moon suddenly likes him again and they're soulmates because like...she complimented his hair once and cheered for him at the tournament???

As if Demetri DIDN'T smile and cheer and clap in the background every time Eli won a match, smh

Anyways I literally felt nauseous when they kissed

Moon has been in like...three scenes this season, and in two of them she showed immensely more romantic interest in fucking YASMINE than Eli

And no, this isn't shipping goggles, like...rewatch the scenes, her focus is MUCH more on Yas than Eli

I guess you could interpret it as her being into Demetri, but like...if that were the case, I'm pretty sure she would have made a move in S3 before he got with Yasmine

And she's been being on-and-off sapphic with Yasmine since S1 so like

Anyways bottom line is that H*wkM**n is just

GOD

How did they make it EVEN MORE of a dumpsterfire than it already was???

Worst ship in the show, hands down

Eli's been getting propped back up by Demetri since the basement scene, but you wanna tell me a straight kiss got him his fighting spirit back????!

Okay I guess technically Hawk x Moon is bi4bi

But it's bi4bi (derogatory)

Unlike Tory x Robby, which is bi4bi (affectionate)

See Hawk and Moon are a great example of why two people shouldn't necessarily date just because they're both in the LGBT community

HATE how Moon is Eli's redemption prize

Hate that hate that hate that hate that

Literally my worst fear for this season and OOP

Cobra Kai come back when you figure out how to write Yasmine and Moon please

And make them kiss while you're at it

Anyways Eli shouldn't magically get the girl just because he's resolved to be a better person, send tweet

Women--and I cannot stress this enough--ARE NOT REWARDS

Moon deserved better 2k22

Okay if I don't stop talking about this now I'm never going to so ANYWAYS

Was it just me or was the Eli-Kyler fight like...super anticlimactic???

Like this has been building up since SEASON 1 and Eli just...landed some fairly easy hits on Kyler and won???

Not to be a sadist on main or anything but I was hoping for a MUCH more brutal beatdown

Maybe not BRUCKS-level brutal but like

More cathartic than SMACK SMACK SMACK okay we're donezo

Like yes I love seeing Kyler get his ass handed to him but I want him to SUFFER more goddamn it

Lord knows all that he's put Eli through, even BEFORE the show

Anyways Kyler should get his ass much more severely kicked

Manifesting for S5

Demetri wya, you and Eli gotta pummel the crap out of this dude Johnny Lawrence style

ALSO LIKE

Why tf are Robby and Kenny fighting???

Yes yes I know it's For The Drama

But it makes no logistical sense

If the way to pick out a "winning" dojo is whoever scores the most points

Then CK is gonna get the same amount of points either way???

IDK I don't get it, they literally just did it because the plot demanded it

But it's impossible to take seriously because conceptually it seems like it would screw the whole dojo-rating system

DANIEL AND JOHNNY IMMA KILL BOTH Y'ALL

HAVE YOU REALLY NOT FIGURED OUT BY NOW THAT BOTH YOUR KARATE STYLES HAVE VALUE

Also like...their styles are actively helping both of their kids/adopted kids so why even are they being so pissy and annoying?? Like for fuck's SAKE

Also Johnny and Daniel Stop Being Controlling Challenge 2022, like...Sam and Miguel can make their own decisions and use whichever styles they want to use actually

This show really ain't never gonna let Daniel and Johnny be friends huh

Like it just keeps pulling reasons for them to be mad at each other out of its ass and I'm starting to be very irked about it

"Take his ass out" BRUH

Like don't get me wrong, Johnny Lawrence is an insensitive ass, but this seems a little much EVEN for him

Bruh this child just got super traumatized super recently and you telling your student to wail on him just because he joined your childhood karate rival's dojo???

CHILL

Okay look I know I said it was funny that Daniel and Johnny would never not be petty manchildren obsessed with their rivalry

But now I kinda wanna smack both of them

Also listen, Demetri looking absolutely horrified when Miguel's back acts up is excellent, but I want him to run to his buddy!!! Please!!!

Oh god oh fuck oh no one more episode of the Stupid Karate Show to review and then I gotta make a huge monster masterpost about how S5 should go

38 notes · View notes

indecisive-behaviors · 4 years ago

Text

Originally I was just going to add this as a reblog to my previous post about the parking lot scene in KK2 but it’s almost 2k words so now it’s getting it’s own post. Be forewarned- this is fucking long.

TW for discussion of PTSD, child abuse, neglect, injury, and death, in relation to topics surrounding the show, under the cut-

Obviously, Cobra Kai is a show based around the premise of “what happened to that Lawrence kid after he got kicked in the face?”, which is honestly a pretty cool idea for a show. Johnny’s story is never explained past sitting on the sidewalk with his head in his hands at the tournament, and there are no real context clue’s to figure out what may or may not have happened.

In the show we get to learn early on that Johnny’s life spiraled after the tournament, going from bad to worse to “holy shit how are you still alive”-dropping out/never going to college, working jobs he seems to hate, becoming an alcoholic, presumably many dead end relationships, and not being there for his kid. And yeah, obviously, this would be a hard pill to swallow for anyone watching the show if Johnny had just lost the tournament. If we never got the scene in KK2, he would have just been some kid who lost a tournament- we see at the end of the first movie that(through tears holy shit Billy) that Johnny is the one who gives the trophy to Daniel with his famous line, “You’re alright, LaRusso.” There’s a level of grudging respect in that moment that isn’t lost on anyone who sees that movie- that Johnny, who throughout the movie only sees Daniel as some whimpy kid, gets proven wrong and respects that. If we didn’t have that scene, there’s reason to believe Johnny would have apologized, tried to make amends, Something, even if it was just being less of a dick at school.

But then, we get the parking lot. We get a far off shot, intended to distance you from the scene, framed over Daniel’s shoulder. This makes sense, Daniel is the main character, the protagonist, the underdog hero- why wouldn’t it be framed in his perspective? But the scene is about Johnny. We get the shouting match, the back and forth- “No, you’re the loser man.”- and again it’s fairly obvious how Johnny sees this situation. This is a man who we assume(and is later confirmed) to be a surrogate father figure, who set his friend up for failure, and then basically forced him to do the same by targeting an injured opponent, and forcing him to fight without honor. This same man presumably follows a teenager out to the parking lot, to harass him, to tell him he’s off the team, to tell him he’s a loser, that he’s nothing.

But at that point, Johnny knows the truth, even if subconsciously. At the end of the day Johnny knows that Daniel LaRusso was a worthy opponent, and that regardless of the cheating and manipulation, Daniel could have won anyway, and did win, despite of it.

And then Kreese grabs him, too fast to react to, Johnny too surprised even knowing that Kreese is the bad guy here, not believing that he would ever willingly hurt him- and Johnny isn’t strong enough to fight him off, none of the boys are, so Johnny is forced to suffocate for almost a full 30 seconds(which I double checked for the record- also as a reference, 30 seconds is about the average time it takes for a person voluntarily holding their breath to pass out- this does not account for the oxygen lost during a struggle, and the lack of preparation from both surprise and panic. The only silver lining here is the fact that Kreese was most likely compressing his windpipe, not his jugular, which would have made him pass out in about 5-10 seconds, and would have caused permanent brain damage or death in about 15).

Now, PTSD is a complex thing. I’m not a psychiatrist, and what small amount of information we have is all we have to work off of, but I feel fairly comfortable in saying Johnny mostly likely developed it after the incident. This not an uncommon take in the fandom as far as I’m aware either. But, if we assume this, we also have to assume that after the fact nothing would have been done about this. Not just in the sense that we still don’t really know everything that happened right after the tournament, but that in the early 80s, PTSD wasn’t really a thing yet.

Sure it was absolutely a condition that existed, but Post Traumatic Stress Disorder wasn’t even added to the DSM-III until 1980- and for a long time afterward, was only seen as a condition that affected primarily war vets. Even after an event as traumatic as having a man you considered a father trying to kill you, in public, without remorse, would not have been seen as something to warrant the diagnoses, let alone treatment.

Johnny Lawrence was 17 when Kreese tried to kill him, and this boy would have been offered no resources beyond filing charges with the police. And as we see in KK3, either this didn’t happen either, or someone(presumably Silver) got the charges dropped. So on top of almost being murdered, Johnny had to live with the fact that the man who did that to him was still out there, and to top it off, still ran a dojo at least for a few months after the event. The only relief he could have gotten is after Kreese faked his death.

And sure, Mr Miyagi may have gotten Kreese to let go eventually, but as several people have pointed out in comments and tags, left him and the other boys alone with Kreese still standing there in the parking lot and just... drove off. Kreese has already been established to be a psycho with no problem hurting children, a little bit of glass might not have prevented him from trying again.

So why did I talk about all of that? Because it all contributes to why Daniel LaRusso works as a credible antagonist in season 1 of Cobra Kai.

Think about this- Johnny blames losing everything on Daniel in season 1, but we specifically get a shot in KK1 and later KK2(”You’re alright, LaRusso” and “I did my best” come to mind) where he seems to be at least mostly accepting of the fact that he lost(with what was actually an illegal kick but that’s a rant for another time). So why does he blame him for everything 30 years later?

Because 30 years later, Johnny is forced to go outside, go to work, and pretend like he doesn’t see what feels like every street corner(including right outside his apartment mind you), a literal billboard sized reminder of what happened to him.

The rest of this is mostly speculation but it makes sense in my head so bear with me.

When we get introduced to Robby, it’s made pretty clear that Johnny has not been in his life for a bit. In season 2 we get Johnny’s heart to heart with Miguel, where he divulges that he missed the birth, because he spiraled after his mom’s death. This however doesn’t suggest that he stayed gone, especially knowing that it wasn’t long enough for Robby to not consider seeking out his dad. Because tacked up to the fridge, is a picture of Robby in his soccer uniform as a kid. It’s an early detail you can see in previous episodes, and says a lot about how Robby grew up. To be fair, this could have been given to him by Shannon, and not taken himself, but it’s the sport Robby’s playing that makes me question this. KK1 dedicates an entire scene to Johnny being on the soccer team in high school. Soccer, while maybe not as important to him as karate, is still part of his character. Robby does not know karate in season 1, Johnny obviously didn’t share it with him, but that doesn’t mean Johnny didn’t share anything with him.

So Johnny’s back in his kids life, maybe doing better for himself, maybe cutting back on the drinking. LaRusso Auto is already established to exist at this point but it’s in Encino, a place Johnny has no reason to go to, and probably doesn’t want to. He’s trying again and things are okay. But Robby knows enough about Daniel to know that going to him will piss off his dad. So Johnny had to have talked about him at some point. The billboards here are what’s important- they’re in the first episode, the first scene montage, Johnny draws a dick on one of them as some petty revenge.

The first billboard goes up in the late 2000s to mid 2010s. Johnny sees it, maybe he has Robby with him at the time, maybe he goes home and says something there, but he says something in a way that sticks with even a child as being important. More billboards go up. Dealerships starting popping up more and more. Daniel’s face, and by extension, the memories, the flashbacks, become inescapable. Johnny, for a third time, spirals again. Before he even knows what’s happening, he’s lost his relationship with his son. And it’s all Daniel’s fault. Of course Daniel doesn’t do it deliberately, but the constant reminders are enough to send him back into a tailspin and Johnny blames him for it.

Because it’s Daniel who is a constant reminder of his failures- it’s Daniel who caused him to lose the tournament and almost get killed, Daniel who put up the billboards that trigger his flashbacks, it’s always Daniel Daniel Daniel.

And then Johnny gets it in his head that he wants to be better. He opens a dojo, teaches Miguel and the other kids, wants to try again- and he almost succeeds.

Johnny up to this point has not deliberately antagonized Daniel in any way. Sure he named the dojo Cobra Kai, but Cobra Kai is all he knows. Besides Johnny doesn’t blame karate for his failures, his best memories are Cobra Kai and he’s trying to be better than Kreese. So what’s the harm in this really? His building is in Reseda, there’s no reason for Daniel to ever be there, he doesn’t do it out of spite, it’s because he lives there and rent is cheap. He doesn’t know about KK3, doesn’t know about Daniel’s own trauma. This isn’t an attack. Johnny sincerely just doesn’t know.

Enter Daniel, stage left. Daniel makes no attempt to talk to him- he simply makes demands and accusations, before he starts making active attempts to put him out of business.

Sure, we as the audience know Daniel has good reasons to not want Cobra Kai back. But Johnny doesn’t. All Johnny knows is that the kid he picked on in high school- who won, who got everything Johnny wanted, who grew up to be successful, has a wonderful wife, two kids who love him, a thriving business- is doing everything he can to make his life hell 30 years after the fact.

And this could only have happened because in 1986 John G. Avildsen decided to add in a scene meant for the original movie into the sequel, for absolutely no fucking reason.

#meta analysis #ranting about cobra kai cuz I can #johnny lawrence #daniel larusso #cobra kai #karate kid #I will never get over the fact that that was an actual scene that they filmed #and then got no resolution #FOR 30 YEARS #I apologize to everyone for this post #obviously I have a lot of feelings about this

79 notes · View notes

mimsyaf · 4 years ago

Text

TKK3, some thoughts: Suddenly there’s a lot of fic that engages with the absolute batshit crazy house of mirrors that is The Karate Kid Part III, and I’m fascinated. Why? I mean Terry Silver (who is his own trigger warning) is a long, tall drink of water, for sure for sure. And we now know that he’ll be featured in the next season of Cobra Kai, which — yay! bring it! But I think, as aesthetically pleasing as Terry Silver is, as “Batter my heart, three-person’d God” as the gaze is that Daniel casts upon him, there are primarily narrative irritants that are calling forth these pearls of TKK3 writing. As opposed to just thirst.

If TKK3 had not existed, we would have a somewhat straightforward and discouraging character arc on our hands for Daniel LaRusso. From luminous, impetuous, ardent, curious boy he grows into a middle-aged man who has not learned yet how to forgive, who chases wealth and outward status at the expense of wisdom. This man still glimmers with love and passion and temper but now these fires are banked under heavy grey ashes of complacency, pettiness, insecurity and self-satisfaction. And he knows it! He’s aware of all of this on some level! Without TKK3, the narrative arc is that Nothing Gold Can Stay. When you grow up, your heart dies. At least in part, and then Cobra Kai is for Daniel an attempt to rouse himself from his coma, in which Johnny (on the surface the antagonist) is actually a necessary and rousing jolt to awaken him.

But! TKK3 does exist, and is a profoundly weird, fun, flawed piece. Two of the main creatives involved had deep reservations about making it. The writer did not want to write it — he had an entire other script already mapped out in which Mr. Miyagi and Daniel were hanging out in a boat, and Daniel falls asleep and basically dreams the entire plot of Crouching Tiger. Hidden Dragon, inasmuch as it is a Chinese martial arts story, and they fly. And! The protagonist was going to be a girl? But the studio execs said Nyet, we want another story in the formula of TKK, and if you don’t write it we’ll give the script to someone who will, and they will irrevocably fuck up Mr. Miyagi, (and it will probably be unwittingly suuuuper racist) and that will be all your fault. And then presumably they laughed like Terry Silver, HAHAHAHAHA! So the writer had a gun to his head, no, worse, to his beloved character’s head, and I do think he wrote TKK3 through gritted teeth so to speak. Parts of it read like a fuck you to the producers: “you want a bad guy?? Fine, he runs a TOXIC WASTE DISPOSAL COMPANY and wanders around naked and laughing maniacally all the time, is that villainous enough for you??” But because he did truly love Daniel and Mr. Miyagi, he kept threading tender scenes about compassion and found family into the hot and dramatic mess of the script. It’s like if Trois Gnossiennes started playing during a quiet moment in Carmina Burana, like WTF? Oh and also it’s a meditation on trauma and grooming and abuse.

And then Ralph Macchio ALSO had reservations about being involved. He didn’t want to risk spoiling the delight and hope and joie de vivre of the first two movies with an inferior third sequel, and also he was getting rilly old to play a teenager, and wanted to move on. I imagine he felt the flaw in the script and rather than rising above it, at times he sank under it, in part due to his ambivalence. And Thomas Ian Griffith had basically not ever acted before apart from a recurring role on a soap opera, and though he is a thing of beauty and a joy forever in this movie, not everything he’s doing makes sense, as like, acting. Or a coherent character arc. Or human behavior.

So in between the luminous boy Daniel of TKK and TKK2 and the infuriating but deeply lovable man Daniel of Cobra Kai is this utterly flawed work, that dances with questions of trauma and self-betrayal and then ends with a few minutes of soft core torture porn at The All Valley and resolves in about 30 seconds with a rehash of the victory from TKK, but in a way that makes no sense given everything that came before that moment.

And Terry Silver just like, wanders off. Mildly perturbed. And he and Kreese apparently don’t do anything else to Daniel LaRusso for 30-something years. But whatever.

Dreams are the brain’s way of working in emotional problems, and I think the flourishing gardens of Terry Silver-centric fic right now are all of us trying to dream our way to a solution to the problem of Daniel LaRusso, and dealing with some truly nutso source material that doesn’t fit in neatly with the rest of canon. But long live the flaws! My experience is that many artistically unimpeachable works don’t inspire much fiction, as there’s not gaps for us to attempt to bridge with our spider silk.

Sorry this is such a ramble!

#meta #tkk3 #terry silver #daniel larusso

116 notes · View notes

boundless11 · 4 years ago

Text

I’m quite new to this fandom. I love all the characters on CK and I’ve enjoyed watching their growth over the seasons. What I can’t understand is the amount of unnecessary hate Sam gets. What’s worse is, other characters (who I won’t mention) have made mistakes, yet nobody complains about them. I like Sam as a character and sometimes we forget that this show has teens, who make mistakes. Sam is no different. If she was perfect, she would be boring. But the fact she has flaws makes her more realistic and interesting. I came across this Youtube channel called Watch Party, which had negative videos regarding Sam, while taking it all out of context. She’s had so many positive developments over the three seasons and I feel they’re really underrated.

‘Everyone’s got a sob story. Doesn’t give you the right to be a bully.’ This is where some fans have had a problem with her. Didn’t she confront Kyler about him bullying Miguel and the boys? Have they forgotten that she was also bullied in season one? Kyler tried to take advantage of her during their date, but she fought back. He then spread those nasty rumours about her, she got dumped by her friends and she was the victim of cyberbullying. Over the course of the seasons, she has learnt to become a better person. She could’ve easily been against Yasmin and Demetri’s relationship. Afterall Yasmin was the cause of the cyberbullying in season one and now Sam and Demetri are good friends, you’d think she’d have a problem with it. But she didn’t; she was surprised when she caught them making out, but nevertheless, she was happy for them at the end.

Sam doesn’t take responsibility for her actions, she is the cause of all the drama: Another argument from fans. Well if there was no drama, it wouldn’t be interesting. She’s not the only character to cause drama. She does take responsibility for her actions countless times over the course of the show and due to this, she does then go onto have better relations with Miguel, Moon and Yasmin by season three-she’s even approaches their table during lunch after Hawk destroys Demetri’s model. When Miguel asks her whether they could start over, she agrees. During her date with Miguel, when she’s bragging about the season tickets for the Lakers, she stops herself realising Miguel isn’t as privileged as her, but invites him to a game with her. She even felt guilty about keeping her relationship with Miguel a secret from her parents and she admitted this to Robby as they drove to the canyon party and from what I remember, she sped down as she was eager to get to Miguel and make it up to him. She is constantly apologising:

· To Aisha regarding their strained relationship

· During 80s night, she apologised to Tory telling her she just wanted to order food

· During that same night, she did brush Miguel off after he wanted to make amends and later, she thought it was him and began her apology, but it turned out to be Robby.

· She was about to come clean to Robby about the kiss but the bell rang.

· She apologised to Miguel at the hospital because she felt guilty that he’d seriously been hurt because of her actions.

She knew the school fight had started because of the kiss at the party and acknowledged it, therefore taking responsibility for it. Some of us forget that Miguel also kissed her back.

Sam is flirtatious especially with Robby while she was with Miguel: she was being friendly. That’s who she is. She even thanked Miguel for sticking up for her and for allowing her to join his group for the pig dissection.

Sam is a caring individual:

· ‘What’s with the doom and gloom?’ Sam knew Miguel was upset over something and was supportive telling him: ‘I’m sure you did amazing again.’ She tried to distract him by telling him about the student in her class who hadn’t showered. During their date, she let him ‘correct’ her stance before flipping him on the ground. She wanted to impress him and you could see it from her face when she finished the move.

· She even defended Cobra Kai to her dad insisting that just because the kids who were a part of it, it didn’t mean they were horrible kids.

· Robby would still be on the streets; Sam realised Robby’s living arrangements weren’t great, so she told her dad.

· When Miguel fell following the school fight, she along side Hawk were one of the first ones to reach him. She later admitted that she didn’t care about Tory and she just wanted Miguel to be okay.

· She was supportive of Miguel at the hospital telling him he was the one who could beat the odds knowing how worried he was about his surgery. Wasn’t she the one who came up with the idea to raise funds for his surgery through the car wash? She didn’t want Carmen to be in debt.

· She did keep in contact with Robby while he was in Juvie, but eventually stopped when he didn’t respond.

Sam is fiercely loyal/open minded:

· She’s defended Demetri from CK and Miguel from Robby

· She didn’t want the Myagi Do name to be tarnished, so along with Miguel, tried to get the All Valley reinstated and succeeded.

· She stopped her dad from annihilating Kreese in the season 3 finale; she knew about guilt and it’s effects on a person and she didn’t want that for her dad.

· She listened to Robby about Myagi Do needing more offence and tried to beg her dad to teach them some more offence.

· She also accepted Mitch (after he’d tried to attack Demetri) and the others from CK.

· She also came up with the idea of uniting Myagi Do and Eagle Fang because she realised CK was the bigger threat. Fans loved this team up of Johnny and Daniel but forget that Sam was behind it.

· Didn’t she also tell Miguel that Eagle Fang was welcome to train at Myagi Do, knowing that they were training in a park?

And yes she’s made mistakes:

· She should’ve told her parents about the accident but how many of us as teens kept stuff from our parents?

· She told Miguel to change dojos, but that was only so her dad could approve of the relationship, because she really liked Miguel.

· She ignored Miguel’s attempts for reconciliation; maybe she needed some space and wanted to focus on karate to help clear her mind. She didn’t like what Miguel was becoming –a bully-because she had already dated a bully before-Kyler. She wasn’t going to make the same mistake again.

· She did accuse Tory at the Beach Club, but it didn’t help when Tory had stolen a bottle and was bragging how she could steal everyone’s silverware? And Tory was the one who tripped Sam at the rink. Sam just retaliated.

· She did lead the Myagi Do into an attack, which didn’t go as planned. But that was only after she got sick of the way they were being treated by CK and Blatt.

What’s funny is she told Miguel she wouldn’t come to the tournament, but she ended up going. In a way, I feel her presence there allowed Miguel to do well because he wanted to impress her and the more she tried to hide it, the more driven he became. He used that anger, which was directed at Robby to win the tournament.

Feel free to add your thoughts guys!

#wow this is long #cobra kai #cobra kai series #cobra kai spoilers #sam larusso #samantha larusso #miguel diaz #sam x miguel #samiguel #miguel x sam #demetri x yasmine #yasmine #cobra kai hawk #eli moskowitz #demetri #tory with a y #tory nichols #cobra kai aisha #aisha robinson

160 notes · View notes

retvenkos · 4 years ago

Text

No, I am not done talking about aging up the characters of the Grishaverse, thank you very much...

(Spoilers for pretty much all of the Grishaverse!)

I’m going to come right out and say it - I don’t think aging up all of the characters was the smartest move. I think the Grishaverse is compelling, and the characters can be very complex, and part of that leans on the ages of the characters. I’m going to be talking about why I think (at least some) of the characters should have retained their same age, or at the very least, shouldn’t have been quite so aged up.

But first, I understand some reasons as to why they aged up characters, so I’m going to state them outright, to advocate on their behalf (but also, I can try my hand at debunking some of these. For funsies):

1. Mass audiences will be less interested if the main story feels too Y.A. - most adult audiences won’t want to watch that genre.

(This is a very fair argument! However, when comparing Shadow and Bone to other popular (non Y.A.) fantasies, Shadow and Bone is very Y.A. Compare Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings to Shadow and Bone, and you can see how the Y.A. genre permeates the text. There are character moments and story beats that Shadow and Bone utilizes that are characteristic of the Y.A. genre. It was created with that audience and expectation in mind. No matter how hard the show tries to divorce the source material from it’s Y.A. roots, it is still very much a Y.A. story. The second most important plot line is a romance and not the implications of how society created the Darkling and how society Must Be Fixed if we ever want to move on and win the war. Those problems of the wider Grishaverse are better tackled in the Nikolai Duology (which still stumbles), and the Nikolai Duology feels like a different story/genre because it’s tackling something different. Shadow and Bone is an inherently Y.A. story, and really, it is the later books in the Grishaverse that deviate from the tropes and traps of the genre. No matter how you dice it, the original trilogy is very much a Y.A. story. Lean into it, and you might be better able to mess around with the fluidity of the genre, all while your audience knows what the story is, and what will come of it. Alternatively, the writers could have gotten deep into the text and tried to bring up the deeper problems of the story (most of those grey areas) to make it less trope-like, but that would require an almost complete retelling, which we did not get. Too often, Y.A. stories are divorced from the genre when they are adapted, but it’s not done in an organic way that looks at the text itself, and it feels very off when viewing. Just let Shadow and Bone be what it is. If you want a longer rant on this, hmu.)

2. Some very serious things happen to these characters! To write about it is one thing, but to watch a 17 year old Alina be manipulated in this way or to watch a 19 year old Genya be used in this way is dark and very much Not Okay!

(Yes! Watching all of the terrible, terrible things happen is bad enough on it’s own, and when you de-age Alina from 25 to 17 and Genya from 30 to 19, there are some very big consequences! It’s not nearly as inviting or Okay to view! Anyone would be rightly horrified! Especially older audiences! Well, forgive me for being so blunt, but that is part of The Point. Part of what makes all of this so cruel and so unfair is that these characters are young - they are barely no longer children - and that is what heightens the injustice of it all. Alina is a teenager who is tasked with saving the world and freeing an oppressed people! And she doesn’t want to do it! That’s a lot to handle, right? Arguably, by keeping their young ages, you are better breaking out of the Y.A. adaptation trap because you are making a statement about how young these characters are and how unfair all of this is. Y.A. adaptations always age up the characters for palatability, but by keeping them young, you are making it more grungy and more frightening without even changing the source material!)

3. Okay, but adult audiences don’t want to ship teenagers. How will we get them to watch?

(This argument is probably the most sound, and it makes the most sense! Netflix wants to get the widest audience they can - they know teenagers who read the book are going to watch it anyway, so they need to get the older crowd invested. An easy way to get people invested is to get them hooked on a romance plotline. Then you have to watch the show to see how it progresses! It would be hard to do that if adults feel uncomfortable telling 16 year olds to kiss already. Another problem is that Shadow and Bone doesn’t have an adult cast - they have the young ones and that’s about it. Compare that to Game of Thrones (or, if you want me to stop with GOT references, shows like Cobra Kai) where there are 2+ generations - fans have the older group to ship, and the younger group to wish the best for. This is a trap of the Y.A. genre. They are Kids, but they are Not. In the book, this works fine, as their ages aren’t mentioned often. In fact, in the books, they read like competent 25 year olds, except for key moments when they show their age, which usually feels bittersweet (the Six of Crows Duology is much better at this than Shadow and Bone, but I digress). So what do we do? Well, D*rklina fans aren’t going to like this, but I would argue that we keep Alina and Mal aged down, and the story subliminally changes from “the love triangle” to “coming of age while dealing with abusive relationships”. In fact, this is another great way to divorce it from the Y.A. genre, which was already a goal we had in mind.)

✧ *:･ﾟ

Now, let’s move onto character analyses... everyone’s favorite.

In this section, I’m going to break down some main characters from the Shadow and Bone Netflix show (and some upcoming characters, just for the hell of it) and I’m going to advocate for changing their ages. At the end, I’ll give you a rough ballpark estimate for what I think they should have been.

(Also, I just want to address that I loved the actors chosen for the Netflix show, and this is in no way an attack on them. They did great, and they’re performances were amazing. This is me talking about an issue the showrunners made, not the actors.)

Alina Starkov

First, we get to talk about the lovely Alina Starkov. Jessie Mei Li is 25 years old. Her book counterpart is 17. That’s a whopping 8 year difference where a lot of growth happens. Alina Starkov in the books is doing her best for a girl who is told that she is going to save the world. She doesn’t have a lot of experience outside of the orphanage and the army, and so her knowledge of how Grisha are treated is ignorant at best, and malicious at worst. She doesn’t see nearly all of the suffering that is happening in the world, and for the most part, it stays that way. She knows the Fjerdans don’t like them, she knows the Shu are bad too, but she doesn’t really know the extent. She really gets a good look at it in the 3rd book, but for a large part of the series, Alina doesn’t really know what she’s up against, and her age is an easy explanation for her ignorance. A 17 year old growing up in a remote orphanage hasn’t had the greatest education. A 25 year old Alina has less excuses.

(There’s also a lot to be said about how Alina mostly... doesn’t care about the wider issues plaguing Grisha. This is decidedly Bad. I’m going to say this once, and I will say it many times again, but generally, audiences are more okay when a younger character does Bad Things because they reason they’ll learn in time. Thus, for a show, it’s strategically better to make these characters younger. Saying this doesn’t mean I support Alina’s disregard, it just means I recognize how it is utilized in storytelling.)

But why is her ignorance important, you ask? Because, Alina misses a key point of why the Darkling does what he does. To her, his actions of expanding the Fold are very black and white. Even when she’s with him, she refuses to see how it’s justified. Thus, a younger Alina is a little more understandable.

If Netflix was planning on focusing on how the Darklings desires are good but his methods are wrong, keeping Alina aged up is fine because she could be the voice of those concerns. However, I don’t really see that happening, so aging her up seems cheap.

Furthermore, part of the injustice of Alina’s character is that she is a child tasked with saving the world. She is a teenager who is being worshipped as a Saint, and who is going to have to martyr herself for the good of the world. It’s unfair. It’s cruel. Alina being 25 doesn’t somehow change this injustice, but to the average viewer, seeing a 17 year old child dying for the good of Ravka - dying because she’s the only one who can stop the villain - is more emotional and more disturbing. There’s your grit, Netflix. It was already handed to you.

And I know, Ben Barnes (who plays the Darkling) is 39! It would be extremely uncomfortable to watch him fall in love and manipulate Alina! Again, I’m apologizing to the D*rklina shippers, because that is The Point. The Darkling is hundreds (perhaps thousands) of years old. That is why his talk of “eternity” is so compelling. He has felt it. He has lived it. When he tells Alina that he will break her, it should be greatly disturbing! It would change the feeling of the story completely if Alina looks like a teenager. It would be a story about survival - not of romance. And while survival is definitely a Y.A. dystopian or fantasy trope, depending on how it’s handled, it could be markedly different from its predecessors.

However, book Alina is a minor, and that doesn’t sit right with me. Thus, I would make Alina 18, or 19 at the most. She should still very much be a teenager.

Malyen Oretsev

Mal is the next character we get to talk about, and I’m sure you have an idea about what I’m going to say. Archie Renaux is 23 and his book counterpart is 18. That’s only a five year difference, which isn’t that damning, but still leaves some problems.

One thing a lot of people disliked about Mal in the books was his temper and the way he expressed his frustrations. Now, while it’s true that viewers tend to be more forgiving with male characters having bad attitudes, this attitude problem could still be something that viewers will dislike in later seasons. This problem is only larger when you factor in an older age. Already, I expect people to complain about Mal’s temper and his inability to vent his frustrations in a healthy way (avoiding talking to Alina, blowing up, having a sour mood, having violent or explosive tendencies). This is only going to get worse when another argument added is “he is a grown man. He should have learned how to cope by now.” This argument isn’t completely nullified by a younger age, but it is made a little more understandable to the audience. (Again, in no way am I justifying these unhealthy behaviors, nor am I saying it’s okay when younger men do it, I’m just saying that viewers on a whole are more likely to excuse this behavior from a younger man - a sad reality, but a reality nonetheless.)

And as for his tracking ability, which is the best out of everyone in the world, he is gifted primarily because he’s an amplifier. At the end of Ruin and Rising, it’s noted that he can’t track nearly as well as he could because the world doesn’t hum with life in the way it used to. The in-world explanation probably also explains the ease with which he can pick up new skills. Thus, Mal doesn’t need to be aged up for skill reasons.

So, I would make Mal 19-21 in the series. He can be the slightly older than Alina, and everything works out how it should.

The Darkling

This one is going to be really quick - I think the age they made the Darkling was fine. Ben Barnes is 39 and we really don’t get an answer as to how old the Darkling is in the book (although he’s older than 400 years old, because the Fold was created 400 years ago).

It’s worth noting that in the books, the Darkling isn’t described as being much older than (a 17 year old) Alina, but having him be markedly older than Alina was a smart move for subtext, but also for the presence that the Darkling has, and the reverence with which people regard him. The Darkling has power - I can’t imagine a 17 year old boy having the same effect as a grown man.

I have no beef with a 39 year old Darkling. I wouldn’t age him down much more, but I also wouldn’t make him much older, either.

Genya Safin

Genya Safin is another character I feel like should be addressed. Daisy Head is 30 years old. In the books, Genya is 19. Now, Genya’s character is an interesting one, because arguably either age suits her character. Throughout the series she’s shown to be more mature and capable than Alina, and while she places importance on the cliques of the Little Palace (which was poorly shown in the show, imo), she was raised in this environment from very young, and she’s at the bottom of the ranking. Her investment in it is justified. Sadly, I think more viewers would be moved by her story of sexual abuse if she were younger, but what happened is a tragedy and it was wrong no matter how you dice it.

Her age is one of the few I’m neutral on.

However, she and Alina are shown to be very close in the book, and while that doesn’t carry over as easily in the show, I think it would be nice to place her at least a little closer in age to Alina, but still keep her a little older so that she can offer her advice and it doesn’t feel preachy or unearned.

I would place her around 19-26. She has a lot of room for her age, because it’s not vital that she be any specific age.

David Kostyk

I’m very briefly talking about David because Luke Pasqualino is 31 and David in the books is 19-20. I aged down Genya, and since they are love interests, I would like them to be in a little closer range of each other.

However, David is a very gifted Fabrikator - so much so that he changes the war considerably in later books - so I still want him to be older than the average cast.

I would place him around 24-29, and mostly, it would be based around the age of Genya. I wouldn’t want him to be 29 if Genya is 19. That’s just the ballpark range.

Zoya Nazyalensky

The final Shadow and Bone character I’m going to talk about is Zoya because she’s really important later in the Grishaverse. Online, I could not determine exactly what Sujaya Dasgupta’s age is, but the two ages most commonly given are 19 or 21. Zoya in the books is 19-20, so Sujaya is one of the most faithful castings in terms of age.

I think it’s important that Zoya is around the age of Alina. Not only do they have a shared love interest in the form of Nikolai (and the Darkling in the show, which I absolutely hate), but they also have a rivalry for the Darkling’s favor (which isn’t romantic, but about sTATUS), and having her be markedly older than a teenage Alina would be weird, in my opinion.

Furthermore, Zoya’s character is pretty closed off and (dare I say) one-dimensional in the original Shadow and Bone trilogy, so keeping her younger isn’t going to make her any less believable. She’s not particularly wise, so keeping her young won’t be an issue.

Finally, she has a romantic plotline with Mal (even if it doesn’t go anywhere), so we want to keep her within range of Mal’s age, too.

I would place Zoya at 19-22. Thus, I am in agreement with the showrunners!

Nikolai Lantsov

A character that has yet to make an appearance in the show is Nikolai Lantsov, who is stated as being 20-21 in Siege and Storm, and the rest of the Shadow and Bone trilogy. Nikolai hasn’t been casted yet, but I decided to put him here because why not?

Nikolai, interestingly enough, is a character I would like to age up, however, only slightly. Nikolai is a very accomplished character, as anyone who has read the series knows, and while he does have the grooming to be that smart and accomplished, he is able to outsmart the Darkling and other older characters on multiple occasions, and him being so young just seems off. Of course, I understand why he is young - his love interests are, and he certainly has his moments where he’s boyish and unprepared - but these reasons pale in comparison to all of his talents and accomplishments.

Taking all of this into consideration, I would put Nikolai at 23 or 24. It’s a minor age change, and it would really just make him more apt to grow into his role. He’s still young enough to where people can underestimate him, but he’s old enough to justify having such smarts and charm. The only argument I can see going against this is his love story with Alina, seeing as she’s 18/19, but I think there was a lot that went into his pursuit of Alina. At first it was political, but after that, it became about how Alina was someone who challenged him and knew him for all that he was. It was less of a romance and more of a friendship that lended itself to a nice opportunity. It could have been more. It wasn’t. Plus, the age gap isn’t egregious.

Tamar Kir-Bataar and Tolya Yul-Bataar

I’m briefly talking about these twins, because they are originally 18-19 in the Shadow and Bone Trilogy, and I would like them to be older overall. Tamar and Tolya are some of the most competent characters in the Grishaverse, and having them be the same age as Mal and Alina is off, in my mind.

I would like them to be at least Nikolai’s age or older, so 23-27.

✧ *:･ﾟ

Finally, we’re on to the crows....

Kaz Brekker

Ah, yes. The Bastard of the Barrel. His is a character I was actually really glad to see aged up, before watching the show. Afterwards, I have some more complex thoughts. Freddy Carter is 28 years old and Kaz, in the books, is 17.

Kaz in the books is very competent. So much so that he outsmarts everyone he comes up against - characters who are older than him and often have military strategy. Furthermore, he is ruthless. He is probably one of the darkest characters in all of the Grishaverse, and all of that is placed on the shoulders of a 17 year old. To make a comparison, he and Alina are the same age when their stories take place (Shadow and Bone for Alina, and Six of Crows for Kaz). I don’t know a lot of young celebrities to make the comparison, but he’s a teenager. He’s a child. Aging up Kaz in the show was something I was very much on board for. Kaz is a ruthless killer and an expert thief, and making him older was a smart move, imo. A Kaz in his 20′s made more sense.

However, when we meet Kaz in season one of Shadow and Bone, he’s very much in his fledgling state. Not a single plan of his goes as planned. He is foiled at every step, and the most gruesome thing he did in the show wasn’t bad, when you compare it to thing Kaz has canonically done. Rumors say that the Six of Crows arc is going to pick up in season two, and while I hope it doesn’t, I covered that particular argument far more in depth in another post and won’t address it here. Whether or not I think show Kaz is up to snuff, I think they aged him up too much and they depowered him too much.

Part of Kaz’ secret weapon was that he was wicked smart and crazy competent, but people underestimated him because of his age. They figured he didn’t have nearly enough experience to be as ruthless and cunning as he was. They were clearly wrong.

I think that Kaz in his 20′s makes sense, but Kaz in his late 20′s does not. Especially when you factor in the fact that he was so epically unsuccessful in the show, the extent to which they made him older wasn’t doing him any favors. It made him less “Dirtyhands” than he is.

So, final say, I would have made Kaz 20 or 21 in Shadow and Bone. We’re de-aging him so he still has time to grow, but he’s not crazy overpowered at 17. Furthermore, in a perfect world, he has time to age between Shadow and Bone and the events of Six of Crows.

Inej Ghafa

Inej is played by Amita Suman who is 23 years old. In the books, Inej is 16. In an interesting turn of events, I don’t find Inej in the books to be terribly overpowered so much as she is just really talented.

Inej in Six of Crows is hesitant to kill. She’s smart and watchful, and she’s a really great spider. She’s given backstory to explain all of this, and it makes sense. At most, she is mature for her age, but that is also given a pretty damn good reason. She has to be.

The few reasons I could see as to aging up her character is to make it less awkward for the romance between her and Kaz, as well as make the crows group more cohesive in age, with fewer outliers, both of which I am not against.

I would make Inej around 18 or 19 and call it a day.

Jesper Fahey

Jesper is another character that I largely have no problems with. Jesper is played by Kit Young who is 26 years old, and in the books, Jesper is 17.

In the books, Jesper is an extremely talented marksman, but part of that (even if he doesn’t know it or doesn’t want to acknowledge it in the books) is because he is a Grisha Fabrikator and he is using his gifts to bend the bullets he shoots and aims them where they need to go. His character wasn’t particularly overpowered in the books, and as for his personality, in the books he acted the most “teenage-like,” but in the show, he retained his same youthfulness without it seeming out of place, so that isn’t particularly damning.

For Jesper, I don’t mind aging him up or making him younger. Both work.

However, he has a romantic plotline with Wylan (who I will get to eventually), so we wan’t to keep that in mind.

Final say, I would make Jesper 18. He’s the same age as (or slightly younger than) Inej, and that sits well with me.

Matthias Helvar

Oh, boy. If you’ve been on my blog long, you know this is the character that started this whole rant. Because here’s the thing: Matthias is an incredibly complex character. And part of that complexity comes from the fact that Matthias doesn’t know about anything beyond what Fjerda has taught him. He is heavily indoctrinated and heavily ignorant, and his struggle is what makes him such an interesting character.

Matthias is played by Calahan Skogman who is 28 (in my other meta, he was 27, but birthdays, y’know?). In the books, Matthias is 18 when Six of Crows takes place. That’s a whopping 10 year age gap. As you can imagine, so much happens in 10 years time. Now, with Matthias, we’re going to look at his life a little more in depth so that you can really understand how this 10 year gap affects his ignorance.

Matthias’ family were killed by Grisha when he was a child. We don’t know how young, but that doesn’t really matter, because either way it’s traumatic. Soon afterward, he starts training to become a soldier. Now, just when drüskelle are allowed to be fully initiated at Hringkälla is unknown, but I’m guessing the age would be at youngest, 14 (although, it’s probably closer to 16, but I’m not arguing about that right now). Grisha are supposed to be the most dangerous type of person. The Fjerdans are not going to put 12 year olds out there to fight them. So, a roughly 14 year old Matthias is going on expeditions to catch Grisha. When he is 17, Matthias meets Nina. At this point, he has only been a full drüskelle for 3-ish years. Regardless of how many Grisha Matthias has captured, 3 years is a vast difference from his show counterpart, who is 28 and therefore (as a drüskelle since he was 14) has been capturing Grisha for 14 years. In fact, in the show, they give Matthias props for having been the one with the clever ideas for capturing Nina, which shows he has done this often. After that, Matthias spends one year in Hellgate, making in 18 in the books and (eventually) 29 in the show.

So, why was it so important that I detail that for you? Matthias’ change of heart is prompted by Nina, a pretty Grisha. I’m not saying their bond is shallow, but if you are a man who has a nasty past with Grisha and has been hunting them for 14 years, having a pretty Grisha change your mind is a little shallow and a little unbelievable. Even though Nina saved his life, I think it’s a little hard to sell the substantial change of heart he has. On the other hand, if Matthias is 18-19, he’s still a hormonal teenager, and his feelings for Nina prompting some critical thinking makes more sense. Furthermore, Matthias is younger and more impressionable. It would be much easier to change his worldview, if he were younger.

All in all, I would de age Matthias to be 19-20. Slightly older than in the books to allow for Nina to be a little older than her book counterpart (which I’m about to get to.)

Nina Zenik

Almost finished with my rant, we’re talking about Nina. Nina is played by Danielle Galligan who is 28 years old, and in the books, Nina is 17.

Now, Nina Zenik is a capable character. She is a spy. She speaks multiple languages, she’s a talented Grisha, and she’s quite self-assured. All of that advocates for an older Nina, so that she may have time to hone these impressive skills. Furthermore, Nina is the most sexualized of the Crows. I wouldn’t mind her being older, and I’m sure general audiences would be in favor of her not being a teenager.

Nina is also a soldier and she has a very complex storyline in Six of Crows, and later. By all accounts, aging her up is not a bad idea. In fact, I quite like the idea that Nina is older. I agree that she should be aged up, just not to the extent she was.

If this were my world, I would make Nina 20-22. That would make her the oldest out of all of the crows, and I quite like that.

Wylan Van Eck

Wylan has yet to be casted, but he is 16 in the books, and pretty damn smart. He’s not street smart, mind you, but he’s a chemistry nerd and demolitionist, so he’s very competent. He’s still under his father’s thumb, but I don’t take that to mean he has to be young - abuse can affect you well into your life. He’s definitely a character more naive to the realities of the Barrel, but that can easily be played off as “the rich boy is out of depth.”

There’s nothing that explicitly needs him to be younger than an adult, although the argument for making him young amongst the crows is strong and still stands.

He has a love story with Jesper, so we want to keep in mind the fact that Jesper is an adult.

Wylan also has the tricky little storyline of him being tailored into being Kuwei, so in determining his age, we want to keep him in the ballpark of Kuwei. Luckily, he was tailored from a Grisha on parem, so truly, anything is possible.

For his smarts, his competence, and his love story, I think we should age him up.

All in all, I would make Wylan 18. It’s not far from his book counterpart, and I think it makes sense.

Kuwei Yul-Bo

Kuwei is another character who was yet to be casted. He is 16 in Six of Crows, and I would say he is the character who most shows his age. Kuwei may be wicked smart, but he’s a chaos gremlin who doodles in his notebook, pretends to not understand Kerch, and also renames himself to be nhaban - “rising phoenix” in Shu. He doesn’t scheme the way the rest of the crows do, and while this can be explained away by the fact that he’s not a criminal, there still seems to be something hopeful and youthful about his character.

He’s still a boy in mourning over the death of his father, and he’s currently one of the world’s most wanted. In Crooked Kingdom, he’s vibing in a tomb for the majority of the book. Kuwei is honestly such a fun character that I hope gets more complexity in coming Grishaverse content.

Kuwei is very similar to Wylan in that he’s wicked smart (although his dad is a scientist and they have worked together, so there is some in-world explanation) and he has a crush on Jesper (don’t we all?).

Taking this into account, I would make Kuwei 17 or 18.

✧ *:･ﾟ

TL;DR, the characters of the Grishaverse were aged up and I’m a little miffed about it. The reasons for aging them up are to detract from the source material being a Y.A. story, but you cannot separate a story from it’s genre. The story is inherently Y.A. because it uses story beats that are typical of a Y.A. story. It’s not just viewer expectation - the story is Y.A. The ages of the characters in the books are very young in some cases, but in the show they were aged up too much, imo. It detracts from the tragedy of them being young and forced to survive, and it adds very little in most cases.

✧ *:･ﾟ tagging @missumaru

56 notes · View notes

shrinkthisviolet · 3 years ago

Note

CK theory: If Sam does feel truly isolated, the nightmare sequence could start off as just those first shots in the trailer. They start in 5x01 and become recurring in the next few episodes as we start to see how alone she does feel (like Harry Potter in Order Of The Phoenix). By 5x03 Sam meets the CK Sensei (who takes over the KK 3 Silver role) and leaves out the part about being a Cobra. She bonds with Sam and becomes the person Sam starts spending more time with than anyone else. In 5x05 the CK Sensei reveals herself (supposedly) to be honest with her after Sam shares that her last nightmare went on longer than the others — and was confronted by a “Dark” version of herself but immediately woke up. The CK Sensei would then go on to manipulate Sam by explaining to her that CK isn’t the root of her problems. Those she loves, but ignore her are. That the people she’s fighting for haven’t even noticed she’s been suffering or where she’s been spending her time each day. She tells Sam that if she wants to find the right path for herself to finish the nightmare all the way through.

That night Sam does so and this is where we get Dark Sam VS Sam. With Dark Sam defeating Sam with a final strike from her sai (depending on how graphic the scene goes, this could be why the series has changed its rating). When she wakes up Dark Sam is now in control and either joins CK under her new Sensei or continues to train with her separately as the mid-season twist (but still embracing the “No Mercy” mantra).

…I’m with you anon, but the idea of turning her “Dark” isn’t really appealing to me. Especially the idea that she has a Dark alter ego that’s controlling her…that doesn’t really fit the tone imo. And again, her going full Cobra isn’t really interesting to me. It’s been done way too many times already (and in an incredibly predictable way at this point), and frankly it doesn’t really fit Sam’s character. Even Daniel in KK3 never went full Cobra, the worst thing he did was punch a dude really hard and regret it immediately after.

As I said before, I want it to be more of a thing where the new CK sensei frames it as “if you want to beat CK, you have to use their tactics,” and the more Sam indulges in a very aggressive fighting style, the more she pushes past Eagle Fang and edges closer to Cobra Kai…but she still has her heart. She’s just not being told the full truth.

We can have the nightmare initially as you mentioned and recurring throughout the season, we can have the CK sensei eventually start causing Sam to distrust her loved ones (again, like Daniel in KK3. He never hated Mr. Miyagi, he just thought he found a better teacher and started to distrust Mr. Miyagi’s motivations for a while. Sam could be the same) and trust her more instead.

Her Dark self in that nightmare would not be something she becomes, but something she is afraid to be. Someone who is a Cobra—this fuels her hatred for CK throughout the season until she finally realizes her sensei is a sham, rejoins Miyagi-Fang, and defeats her nightmare self—imo this is the best way to carry out her arc if they go this route.

#sam larusso #samantha larusso #cobra kai s5 speculation

3 notes · View notes

blind-rats · 4 years ago

Text

For the fans, it’s never about the “happy endings”. People misunderstood that it seems to get a good storyline, either it has to be happy or dark. It’s not that simple. It’s not Happy Ending vs Dark Ending. It’s about good storytelling and characterization.

For years, fans cared more about the characters. When a writer only focused on the plot, and not the character, then they would usually sacrifice the progression, the development, the investment, the connection, and the fans who actually watched the show FOR the characters since the beginning. Good storytelling is when it elevates the character (good or bad) into something layered.

Season 1:

Aaron was arrested for Lilly’s murder was a good thing; something that should be done. The baddie finally was captured, even got hit by a truck.

Logan wanted to jump off the bridge was a cliffhanger; something that would keep the fans tuned in for the next season.

Lianne took the money was IN character; she wasn’t a good mother and Veronica finally admitted that. For a whole season, V thought that by solving Lilly’s murder, her mom would return, but in the end, it didn’t matter. V accepted that. It sucks, but it was progress for Veronica that she finally let her go, although she lost the money. There was balance for these plots and these characters, that is why season 1 was the best.

Season 2:

Keith missed the flight wasn’t about a happy ending -- it was a set up for the next season because he received a mysterious assignment from Kendall. Again, it kept the fans wanting more.

Season 3:

Logan beat up Gory was a set up for the next season. Like I mentioned before, if the show wasn’t canceled, it would give Logan a darker path or a lighter path in his life. It was supposed to make the fans wanting more; what would happen to Logan? What would happen to him and Veronica? There was a lot of speculation at the time, but it wasn’t supposed to be the ending.

Keith lost the election, according to RT himself, because he helped Veronica. Which was IN character. He helped Veronica, and it ignited another rivalry between him and Jake Kane again. It was supposed to be another set up for the next season, and it wasn’t supposed to be the ending.

The Movie:

There are so many retcons in this movie that fans noticed and many expressed their displeasure because the storytelling of the movie was a bit weak, BUT they are still IN characters. Yes, there are some changes, obviously you can’t have the same characters from a decade ago. Logan was matured, Wallace was matured, Mac was matured, Weevil was matured, even Piz was matured.

Veronica was trying to find herself and decide what kind of person she wanted to be. At the end of the movie, she decided that she wanted to help people. And that is why many fans liked the movie because the character progressed into the next stage. The character didn’t stay stasis.

The movie had so many flaws, especially with cheesy dialogues, unimportant cameos, and frankly not so good plots. But when fans have waited for so long for the conclusion of the series, to have characters finally get their deserved/bittersweet endings, is a good thing.

The Books (The Thousand Dollar Tan Line and Mr. Kiss & Tell):

Maybe because the books were (co)written by Jennifer Graham, a woman, a fan, she knew about the characterization of the characters. Fans immediately noticed the differences between her writing and Rob’s writing; which parts were hers, which parts were RT’s.

Nobody cared nor remember about the professor and the murderer/rapist, but everyone mostly remembered about Haley, Lianne, Aurora, Hunter, Petra, Jade, Norris, Grace, and even The Gutiérrez cousins.

Notice that all of the memorable characters in the books were absent from season 4 because RT didn’t write them in the books and he felt that he didn’t need to explain their absence.

Logan and Weevil had a good relationship, and they both were friendly with each other. That was progress and should be allowed to continue.

Logan and Veronica had stability and a good relationship even when there were some problems. Even when Leo (who was inserted by RT) was there. But it was pretty much good characterization for both of the characters. Something that was missing in season 4.

Season 4:

To those who said that the whole season was great except for the ending, didn’t pay any attention. From the very beginning, fans were being introduced to a lot of new characters that fans didn’t know nor care like it was some sort a new show. They have their own storylines, their own plots, even their own endings. It would be fine if this was a brand new show, but it wasn’t. It was a continuation of the previous installment. The new characters from the books were much more nuanced compare to the new characters in season 4.

The show focused more on the plots instead of the characterizations. They focused more on the special guest stars instead of the regular cast.

The characterization of Veronica was WAY OFF; so different and seems to be regressed to her former self when she was 17 years old. She was rude to everyone including Logan and Wallace. She didn’t know what was going on with Keith. She was nonchalant about filming others having sex. She was using drugs. She was drinking and shooting a gun. She was mocking Wallace and Logan for having stability. She was more interested in having a fling with Leo but she refused to break up with Logan.

Fans would accept Veronica’s regression if there was something happened to her. Why she behave like that? What was the reason? She was having a life she chosen from the movie and the books, and yet she wasn’t happy. Because of what? What kind of trauma that made her regressed? No reason at all? Because normal life is not something that a detective should have? And that’s when the characterization was down the drain. When a character doesn’t have a motivation to do what’s right or what’s wrong, their behavior is considered to be OOC.

Matty, a new character, a white rich sociopath girl, wasn’t Veronica, and yet the fans were expected to treat and view her like she was Veronica.

Marcia, the new chief of police was a wasted character. She wasn’t a foil for Veronica, wasn’t an enemy of anybody, and she spent her time in the precinct only.

The assassins from the Mexican cartel had too many plots and not enough characterization, and frankly, the fans didn’t care about them, especially when the writers sacrificed Wallace and Mac.

The death of Logan wasn’t just the only thing that was considered worse, but the fact that they immediately didn’t see the aftermath. They never showed the emotional impact and didn’t even give the characters and the fans to mourn the character. RT tends to leapfrog a plot, even in iZombie, and put exposition instead.

The death of Logan was wasted, done by the most insignificant villain in the history of the show that didn’t even have a proper characterization and development. But the show promoted him like he was one of the best things ever happened.

Logan’s death wasn’t caused by a heroic moment or something dramatic. It was last minute and immediately swept under the carpet.

Veronica spent her last monologue talking about exposition. it was an ending. It wasn’t something that fans wanted to tune in, unlike the previous seasons, movie, and books.

So the whole notion that every season ended in a dark ending is partly untrue. Plot-wise, it should served their characters. It should elevated them into something better or something darker, but it was interesting nonetheless. Season 4 didn’t have that at all. All the characters were gone, finished. Veronica rode off to the sunset without any kind of satisfying ending, good or bad. Bad, mostly.

This is why Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul and Cobra Kai are praised because of the writings and characterization. We see the progression of the characters of Jimmy to Saul, who is not a good person, but still layered. We see the development of Johnny Lawrence; from a bully to an anti-hero. Or Hawk from a nerd into a bully himself. IT'S THE CHARACTERIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT accompanied by good storytelling. It’s not (just) about happy/sad ending.

It’s also not just about killing off the main character. There’s a reason why fans are still angry with the ending of How I Met Your Mother or LOST. So many people are pissed with the ending of Dexter and Game of Thrones. Don’t forget about The 100, Gilmore Girls, and Arrow. Not because of the dark endings of those shows, or the killing off the main characters. It was because they wasted so many years with the characterization and development just to get subverted endings that the writers seem to pat themselves on the back, ignoring any fans who had been there for the start.

And RT’s betrayal to the fans isn’t just about killing off the main character. It was the way he did it. He was using the fans to revive the show, using the fans’ money to revive it, knowing that he would kill off a popular character, knowing that he would piss loyal fans and the fandom, who had been very supportive with his works and projects, and yet still done it, just because he despised a character he created for so long. Even BBC News knew this trend and called him out. It was the way he exploited the fans that were considered to be a betrayal.

#Veronica Mars #The 100 #Arrow #Rob Thomas #Jason Rothenberg

70 notes · View notes