#originally with buku buku cha Chozen was going to get that self destructive behavior

[desolateice]

 Headcannon time:

When writing Root Beer Floats and Green Tea I had this genre I wanted to take a crack at which was, dating games. I wanted to have hints at all these other possible routes laid out that I would eventually get to. Which with the cobras was easy but when I got to the second film I tried to figure out how I was going to deal with Chozen. And as I watched the second film very very very slowly I realized how short the timeline was and to my amusement how many costume changes happened in essentially a few days time that made time wonky the way it always is in The Karate Kid universe I tried to figure out why. Why would Chozen, who wears Okinawan formal wear all the time and is upset about Daniel, an outsider being there, be trashing a dojo where his uncle learned karate? Would would he be digging up vegetables and destroying bonsai so readily for his uncle? And the answer I came up with was grief. One of the threads that continues to pull through all the films is grief and how we deal with it. It really cemented as a head cannon when I watched the fourth film, which I did want to include and originally planned to include in Root Beer Floats and Green Tea, however at that point the story was already massive and I was grieving myself and so what ended up happening was hints.

But in the Next Karate Kid, for those who haven’t seen it, Julie Pierce is being raised by her grandmother and she’s angry all the time. Snapping and rude and her grandmother keeps mistaking her for her dead daughter. And I realized while I was watching it again for the first time since I was little, that Julie is grieving. But it’s not a quiet sob in a corner type of grief, it’s an explosive angry grief where sometimes she says things she doesn’t mean and she doesn’t know what to do and she’s lost. And I looked at Chozen, living in a small village on Okinawa whose uncle taught karate, without any parents seemingly being raised by a somewhat distant unhappy uncle (at the time the new season hadn’t come out to confirm that). And the guy who left the village and upset his uncle returns right when the man who taught his uncle is sick and shortly after passes. And I thought oh, there’s no way Chozen doesn’t know Miyagi Sensei. And if you’ve ever lived in a small community and a person dies it tends to effect people. But Chozen isn’t just some village kid. His uncle was supposed to marry Yukie, the person taking care of Miyagi sensei. His uncle was taught by Miyagi sensei, was best friends with Miyagi sensei’s son once upon a time. There’s no way Chozen didn’t know Miyagi sensei better than just the average person in the village. So maybe he’s angry on behalf of his uncle. But what if he’s also angry on behalf of Miyagi sensei, whose son didn’t come home until he was on his death bed? That, to a kid who knew Miyagi sensei and respected him would feel extra cowardly. A level of cowardly that just confirmed and sealed everything his uncle believed. I mean okay the uncle jumps straight to fight to the death, but I mean people used to fight to the death over honor all the time and for dumb reasons. (See Hamilton, The Count of Monte Cristo, countless times throughout history, ect.) But the for all of those is that you usually had an out. A second or someone who could go talk to the other party and try and figure out a solution that didn’t end up in bloodshed. And I truly like to think that the original fall out could’ve been avoided. But Mr. Miyagi was a kid. He was what? 18? The love of his life was going to be married off to his best friend and he panicked? A duel of sorts is kind of a...normal thing for embarrassment of that level. But surely someone could’ve talked it out, come to an agreement of sorts. But from how Mr. Miyagi talks about it, he just ran off. Which I totally get. You don’t want to kill your best friend, you don’t want to even fight your best friend and you don’t want your death to be on his hands either so your best option is to flee. I mean he was 18. (ish) He hadn’t gained all that Miyagi wisdom. But to never contact your family? To never write your dad again? To not say hey pops I fell in love, we’re getting married, we have a kid. Well he probably couldn’t have actually because during the war I’m sure there was a lot of scrutiny on him for being Okinawan and if he wrote home who knows what would’ve happened? And it sucks. But to have never contacted his father again later? After the war? To never even sort of wonder, did my village survive the war? Did my father? Heck, what happened to his mother? Did he miss saying goodbye to her? Did she pass before he left? Anyway, I went on a tangent, let’s go back to Chozen and I’ll set my Mr. Miyagi and Sato and Yukie feelings aside for the moment. (There are so many!) Chozen is close(ish) to Miyagi Sensei. Just through his connections. It’s one degree separation at most. Not just some dude in the village, a small village, that everyone knows. But someone from stories he’s grown up his entire life with. And then he dies. Chozen already isn’t particularly popular right? Because of his uncle? I assume he’s already a grumpy kid. And then Mr. Miyagi has the gall to return and bring some American kid with him? Mind you, America and Okinawa have a rough history, heck the USA occupies a ridiculous amount of the island still. I know, Sato teaches American soldiers, but I assume based off of how Chozen interacts with Daniel in CK that they didn’t teach Miyagi secrets. But to pass on the knowledge to an outsider? And it could also be construed as Mr. Miyagi brought back up. Like some mob boss returning from the USA. We know Daniel’s not there for that, but Chozen and them know nothing about Daniel and his relationship with Mr. Miyagi.  Heck they don’t know what Mr. Miyagi has been up to. And then Miyagi sensei dies. So all that tension, all that “I’m gonna fight you you coward” that Sato’s been fanning these flames of and Chozen is just lost and confused and grieving. Because here’s the thing, what if they were close? Instead of getting to spend time at Miyagi sensei’s death bed he’s got to be out of the way because Yukie is in charge and Mr. Miyagi is there. So he got shoo’d out by this guy who hasn’t been there for 40 years and his American student. Oh he’d be pissed. Heart broken and pissed and it’s so easy to be pissed when you’re grieving. And he’s not mad at Miyagi sensei no, he directs that anger at Mr. Miyagi and Daniel. Outsiders who came, who weren’t there when they should’ve been, and who brought death. Even if it wasn’t their fault at all. But he’s throwing it on them. And he’s backed up by Sato, who probably is also grieving, but that’s a different post. And then Daniel keeps making a fool of him. Poking holes in his scam, winning the bet with the ice, and it’s like salt in a wound. And he’s looking bad in front of his uncle. Who is his only family and all those emotions. Oof. Trying to keep his uncle proud of him and not letting that angry grief his uncle is feeling turn on him? And then his uncle he think dies in a storm and he’s just so lost. Like he’s lost everything. And he’s scared. Because I mean CK cannon, his parents are gone. All he has is his uncle. And he’s filled with so much grief that he’s just frozen because it’s stunning to have lost both Miyagi sensei and his uncle in such a short time. But then Daniel is out there, going into the storm saving people. Being a hero. And so is Mr. Miyagi. Proving Sato and Chozen wrong. They’re not cowards, they’re heroes and they’re brave. And the final straw is his uncle being alive and saved and rather than a reunion or a hug which I think he desperately needed because I doubt they’ve talked or worked through their individual grief, Chozen is cast out. All he has left that he is clinging very tightly to is fighting to the death, something I think got skewed terribly in his mind as the only option after hearing about it his entire life and it being Sato’s primary goal for the film. Because if he wins his uncle will see him again, if he looses, well his uncle will still see him. Because his uncle hasn’t seen him the entire film.

He’s not really family, he’s a lackey, a yes man, and he’s now a ghost. And it’s not like he has anyone else to go to. As Sato’s yes man he was already sort of not liked and then Miyagi Sensei is gone and he’s hurting  and that makes you do dumb stuff. And I think he’s self destructive. He’s got all this anger and nowhere to direct it so he picks a choice. The story he’s heard over and over again. The fight that was supposed to happen but never did and that will solve everything. Sato versus Mr. Miyagi. But instead it’ll be Chozen versus Daniel. If he wins then he was right. If he loses then, he won’t be in pain any more. And maybe he’ll see Miyagi sensei again. But either way he won’t be a ghost. He’ll be able to move forward again in a straight line.

And I think Daniel showing him mercy in a playful way like Mr. Miyagi shocks him to his core. It’s an option he hadn’t thought of. He hadn’t thought he deserved mercy. He probably was looking for someone to punish him for not being there when the people he loved needed him, his uncle in the shrine, Miyagi sensei at his deathbed. And instead he’s allowed to live and no longer is a ghost. He’s been freed and his uncle isn’t the same as he was, and I like to think that they’re made the better for it. That they figure out how to grieve and grow and how to make things for the village and island better. Because they’re no longer in pain and full of hatred. And Chozen might get the chance to be his own person and not just a yes man, because he’s finally seen and no longer a ghost. TLDR: I view Chozen’s entire actions of the second movie propelled by grief stuck in the stage of anger and denial. That he was close to Miyagi sensei and blocked from being by his side at his death and it propels him to self destructive and projection.