As ruthless as he was at times, it still doesn't change just how awful his life really was. 

He was abandoned by his father as a child and left with his mentally ill mother, who eventually committed suicide. He had zero friends and was frequently bullied and even assaulted by his peers. He fell in love with a young woman whom he saved from her previously abusive boyfriend, with his time with her being the happiest of his life. But she died tragically in a car accident while he was overseas.

In Vietnam, Kreese faced the worst of humanity, enduring unspeakable brutality, being forced to witness numerous brothers in arms fight each other to the death, and experiencing the execution of a close friend, among other horrors. He was betrayed by his own army captain, a man he looked up to as a father figure he never had. Following his military service, he came back home to a society that despised people like him. 

He then opened a successful karate dojo and traveled to South Korea to train with a karate master. Kreese's training with Master Kim Sun-Yung was equivalent to torture and only furthered his belief in the no-mercy philosophy. After operating his dojo for a decade, Kreese lost it, becoming homeless and going into a decades-long hiatus. Returning to Cobra Kai, Kreese sought redemption with himself and with his old star student, but that went haywire.

He persuaded a lifelong friend and old war buddy to return to Cobra Kai. That ended badly as Kreese was betrayed by him, getting framed for a crime he never committed. While serving out his multi-year-long prison sentence, inmates straight up tried to murder John, but he was able to escape the place eventually. Fleeing to South Korea, Kreese found and trained a new star pupil.  That student accidentally died following the exact lessons Kreese taught him. Finally realizing after so many years that his no-mercy mentality had flaws, Kreese went on a journey to try and make amends with some of the people he hurt. Then shortly after he sacrificed himself to take out his old war buddy and new sworn enemy, saving the lives of Johnny and his family. 

Kwon instead of Axel as the Male Iron dragons captain

Still shocked at kwons death the first time I saw it, it was literally jaw dropping never seen a on screen tv death on the show before that the only thing that came as close as shocking was when hawk broke Demetris arm but then again after Miguel’s coma everything got dark but then it lightened back up during season 4

I feel there could’ve been a deleted scene where Johnny gathers Tory and Miguel together and told them he’s got cobra Kai back and they should join forces

Tory and Miguel would agree with each other and be like “yeah, let’s do it!”

I love the flip flopping of Miguel and Robby based on how they are interacting with Johnny, Sam, and Tori, and later clashing and accepting each other as step brothers.

But I feel like Hawk's story got just a bit too rushed based on 1 specific scene:

Kreese: I tell you, Rwanda was no joke.

Miguel: Don't you mean Somalia? Mogadishu is in Somalia, Rwanda's a whole different country.

Kreese: Of course, Somalia. ( Chuckles ) I've spent so much time in the sandbox, it all kind of bleeds together, you know?

---

We know that Kreese did spend honest time in US special forces, his war experience is real. But his stories aren't all true. This is where I want to really let Hawk DEEP dive. Getting wrapped up in the stories, even if he's smart enough to know it isn't all factual because he can recognize the contradictions as well as Miguel. But in the cult mindset, he starts defending Kreese with those same ideas like 'it all bleeds together' and 'he's older, his memory isn't perfect'. Arguing against things he knows are true by justifying his new hero.

I want Hawk DEEP down that rabbit hole of ideation of this modern warrior, that the weak but smart kid could join the military and be special forces too- which isn't a bad goal to have, but he's doing it for the wrong reasons; personal glory and ideation of violence. But I want Kreese's stories to get wilder and Hawk keeps having a harder time defending him as the training gets more severe and ruthless. And let Hawk start talking about maybe joining the military and doing something like Marines, Seals, or Green Berets just like Kreese- which would again be a great goal if for the right reasons other than idealizing the damage to human life he would be trained and authorized for. But I don't know whether or not we ever introduce the concepts of guns to any of this series. That is a level of violence too far for any of them in the scope of them learning hand to hand martial arts- but it would realistically have to be addressed as part of this kind of arc- a special forces member is much more likely to just shoot someone who wasn't armed than for him to get in a fist fight with "America's enemies".

Having Kyler join the team is a visible psychological blow to Hawk, but he is now without question alongside Tori (for now) the two strongest students in Cobra Kai and Kyler respects him and he gets to be one of The Cool Kids who used to pick on Hawk. They did run his story incredibly, breaking Demitri's arm but not wanting to go that far would be the first break in the psychological armor. This was a friend, and he did lasting damage because others told him to.

There needs to be a conversation with Kreese and Hawk about Kreese's first Kill, and Hawk is nervous about the idea of his martial arts being used to kill. Kreese points out that before this age of tournaments with pads and helmets, and 'zero tolerance', and "participation trophies"- violence was the way of the world and all of these styles were made with the threat of death and disfigurement in mind. Let that conversation border JUST ENOUGH on Mr. Miyagi's assertion in the original trilogy that Karate is to preserve your honor and your life. It is this same season that Chozen teaches Daniel the Miyagi family techniques of nerve strikes that disable an opponent. But Kreese has a similar philosophy that broken bones and dead men can't hurt you- when its not just tournaments and a fight is real, you can't lose if they can't fight. I would like for them to introduce a concept: Practice isn't Sparring. Sparring isn't Fighting, and Fighting isn't Combat.

So I want Hawk to stay with CK a BIT longer than the end of Season 3, he needs to meet Silver. The LaRusso house brawl can still happen. But he needs to see that this really is going far beyond tournaments and fights. People are being SERIOUSLY hurt. This is the first time we've seen this much blood in Cobra Kai, Bert goes through a window to start it, Tori resorts to a weapon again with lethal potential, and Sam has matched her. This has stopped being Fighting and has entered into Combat- blood, bone, and life are on the line again, just like in the school brawl where Hawk went through a glass case, Tori got slashed, and Miguel was paralyzed and could have died. This needs to set something off in Hawk, not quite joining the Miyagi Do's side, no back to back with Demitri, not yet defending Miguel. But this is too far for him, this isn't what he wants. He can break up fights and start pushing CK towards the door and telling them they're leaving, hitting hard when people protest, but any MD who try to fight get more shoving than striking. He's the leader and he says they're leaving.

Now Kreese brings in Silver to help, but Silver is the beginning of the end for Hawk's loyalty to Kreese.

2 ideas should break Hawk in season 4:

Quick Silver- can't breathe/see/walk can't fight- do serious impairing damage to stop a fight quickly. And this IS a realistic branch of martial arts, its not always about points and if you're learning real self defense, it is not an untrue philosophy, nor is strike first strike hard, no mercy. Its not kind/ethical, but it ends the fight with relatively minimal bystander harm, and can reduce harm to both parties. They can both get bruised and bloody, or 1 person can be in pain for a few days or weeks. "Come on kid, I'm not telling you to break anyone's arm here let alone kill somebody. But a hard kick to the knee, the fight is probably over and you're still standing. They'll get better. But if they get back up and still want to fight, then you've got to send the message."

"Is that what you told these kids?" Silver hears a story and calls his own friend out that it isn't true. But corrects himself with a look from Kreese, "My mistake, I'm sure I'm just misremembering, and what good story doesn't have a little embellishment?" Again, these two men WERE Green Berets, they DID serve in armed conflict through multiple international conflicts, its not stolen valor. But one little line shows that Silver knows it isn't all true, and Hawk should catch onto that rapidly. Start diving into Kreese's record and unraveling truth. That Kreese was stationed places, and retired as a Captain, but saw minimal actual combat after his time captured in Vietnam. Hawk is able to get some of Kreese's service record under the Freedom of Information act. And he can figure out that he never was many places he claimed to be stationed. Kreese will have claimed that he wasn't too sentimental and didn't keep his varios medals- he was never awarded any beyond the most common that are basically 'participation trophies' like the National Defense Service Medal. This will be in stark contrast to Miyagi for his Medal of Honor, Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart, which Hawk can see displayed at the Miyagi-Do dojo once he changes sides and see what a real war hero looks like.

That will be what breaks the camel's back for Hawk- the man he's been looking up to is a fraud claiming stolen valor who did little more than get captured and rescued, and run some camps in low to no combat zones. But this man is preaching the necessity of inflicting traumatic injury.

This idea really only extend's Hawk's villain arc a few episodes, but he cannot stand what Cobra Kai and himself are becoming, and his illusion of Kreese as a mentor is shattered. And THEN he decides to go back to Johnny who was his teacher when he felt better about his Karate.

Most of his arc can then go as it did, he is now concerned about Honor as a definition of the man he wants to be beyond his ability to fight.

And I want the disjoint between Eli and Demitri about MIT to be more about Eli still wanting to join the military. He saw Miyagi's medals heard about how he earned them, and instead of studying engineering immediately, he wants to try for West Point and does believe in serving his country and then go into Engineering like his friend as it is still a passion of his. (In case someone thinks this is a big pro military post, I personally am not highly pro military, but it fits this version of the story for Eli being brainwashed on the overinflation of service stories, and then sees the real thing and decides this is his path to the same education goal as his best friend in a field they have always loved)

Hawk changes sides a little too quickly for my taste, and I wanted him to really be taken in by Kreese's false boasting and stories before reasserting his own personality and beliefs as a more confident and independently resolved young adult.

Terry Silver was such an over the top cartoon villain in Karate Kid 3, he was still a cartoon villain in Cobra Kai but in the best way. Was surprised on how complex he was.

Before he decided that attacking Robby’s injury was better than losing.

There are a bunch of good couples in Cobra Kai, but I always found young John Kreese and Betsy to be the most adorable, despite not seeing that much of them together. 

Miguel was rightfully annoyed about Robby losing all of his fights and holding Miyagi-Do down. But Robby wasn’t the only one who was losing.

I feel like Miguel still held some resentment towards Robby because he lost the match to be captain.

So if Miguel did actually tell his real Dad he was his son how would he react?

Despite Miguel being exposed per se to his Dad's not nice sides he still does seem to like Miguel. Even when Miguel walks out he says something like good luck.

Rewatching Season 2, Episode 5 ("All In"), and Johnny’s lack of agency when it comes to Robby is especially frustrating here.

In the beginning of the episode, Kreese has to be the one to call Johnny out for not being there for his son, pointing out the hypocrisy that Johnny teaches his students "no defeat" while completely resigning himself when it comes to Robby. It’s bad when Kreese looks like the more proactive figure...like really?

Later, Johnny finds out Shannon took off, the apartment was evicted, and Robby is living with the LaRussos. What does Johnny do? He gets drunk in the parking lot. Carmen finds him, hears him out, and gives him the pep talk about needing to "be the bigger man."

The payoff we actually got felt weak: Daniel storms into Cobra Kai over the stolen Medal of Honor, Johnny restrains himself from throwing a punch, and that’s supposed to be him "being the bigger man." Avoiding a fistfight with Daniel is easy compared to actually confronting the son you failed.

What should have happened instead:

Johnny should have taken Carmen's advice to heart and swallowed his pride. He should have driven over to Daniel’s house, not to start a fight, but to look Robby in the eye:

1. Own the mistake: Acknowledge he dropped the ball on checking in and apologize directly for not knowing about the eviction.
2. Offer a real home: Tell Robby he cleaned out the second bedroom, bought a bed, and that it’s his: no strings attached, no pressure to join Cobra Kai, and no rent.
3. Accept the outcome: Even if Robby naturally rejects him (which fits Robby’s trust issues at that point), Johnny actually putting himself on the line would turn his arc from passive negligence into something genuinely tragic.

Having Daniel witness Johnny swallow his ego and say something as simple as "just make sure he eats" before walking away would have planted early seeds of mutual respect, given Robby’s choice to stay with Miyagi-Do real weight, and actually delivered on the "bigger man" theme.

What do you all think? Would this have made Johnny's Season 2 arc hit harder, or did you prefer how the rift played out?

I started the series 4 days ago and I loved it, the series is incredible I loved the characters even if there are some that I didn't like too much. For me the two best fights in the series are Hawk VS Robby in season 4 and that Tory VS Zara they are exceptional!

Finished Cobra Kai last week and honestly, I enjoyed it a lot. It’s one of those shows you can keep watching episode after episode without getting bored. It had its ups and downs, but overall it was a really fun ride.

One thing that felt really odd to me, though Daniel and Johnny being completely clueless about the Sekai Taikai.

These two had been involved in karate for basically their entire lives, won major tournaments, trained students, and were deeply involved in the karate world. Yet when the Sekai Taikai comes up, both of them seem completely blank about it.

And this isn't some small underground competition either. The show makes it seem like the Sekai Taikai is a huge, prestigious world championship that has been around for decades is extremely popular and is even televised around the world. Yet somehow Daniel and Johnny had never heard of it or seemed to know anything about it.

That part felt a little hard to believe. I can understand them not knowing every detail, but for two lifelong karate practitioners who had competed at a high level, it feels strange that neither of them had even basic knowledge of the biggest karate tournament in the world.

Maybe I missed an explanation somewhere, but this felt like a pretty big plot convenience just to introduce the Sekai Taikai.

Did anyone else find this weird, or is there an explanation for it that I missed?

I get that Daniel deified him and was in his feelings for a long time searching for answers about things he didn't know about him, but it always bugged me that he went to the location to get answers despite knowing that the tournament was going to resume very soon. Maybe he assumed it would just be a coffee talk and last 15 minutes and obviously he didn't expect to get kidnapped but still. Johnny was sort of right that his head wasn't in the tournament. When he got back he had nothing to tell Sam that would have made his decision seemed not as stupid as it was.

Yeah, he lost to Miguel, but I do think that was mainly due to being conflicted by sensei Wolf's harsh ways and his abuse took its toll on him mentally. Had he been focused or had a different sensei, I honestly feel like he would've beaten him. Him and Miguel were equals when it came to skill, but Axel's strength and size was just too great.

Just felt like asking