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Back in 1984, Johnny Lawrence, played by William Zabka, was the ‘bad guy’ of the “Karate Kid” movie starring Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso, the assumed protagonist of the show. The new series from Netflix called “Cobra Kai,” flips the script in ways that are insanely accurate in average everyday life.
In the first “Karate Kid” movie, LaRusso moves to a new highschool and gets bullied. A local fix-it man and unassuming Karate master by the name of Mr. Miyagi takes pity on him and teaches LaRusso karate, focusing solely on the defensive side.
Lawrence was the one who bullied LaRusso, though as the new series shows, things were not as cut and dried as they seemed. LaRusso was a threat to Lawrence’s girl, so of course, Lawrence was going to lash out. Lawrence also knew karate, learned from a local dojo by the name of Cobra Kai. The Sensei of Cobra Kai was a ruthless man by the name of John Kreese, played by Martin Kove. Kreese was obsessed with aggression and the theme of “No Mercy.”
At the end of the movie, Lawrence and LaRusso face off in the All Valley tournament, and LaRusso wins.
Fast forward 35 years, and this is where the new series begins. “Cobra Kai” takes place 35 years after the first “Karate Kid” movie, where Lawrence and LaRusso are now in their early 50’s.
LaRusso is a successful man and owns a car dealership, with a lovely wife and two kids. One of those kids is in junior high, and not a significant character in the plot. I’m pretty sure he’s just there so LaRusso has one more thing than Lawrence. His other child is a teenage girl by the name of Samantha.
On the other hand, Lawrence turned out to be one of those people who peaked in highschool. Lawrence is now a poor drunk whose wife left him, and who has a horrible relationship with his teenage son named Robby.
LaRusso and Lawrence haven’t spoken in years, never quite forgiving each other, and the karate drive inside them still exists.
Wanting to get his life together, Lawrence rents a building and starts up the Cobra Kai dojo again, but this time he is the sensei, not Kreese. At the beginning, he had one student, a teenage boy named Miguel Diaz who was being bullied and wanted to learn karate.
LaRusso sees this new dojo and is reminded of his awful past associated with the place, and wants to get it shut down.
Overall, the TV show “Cobra Kai” is one of the most well written shows of the decade…It’s realistic and it’s often difficult to tell who the hero is because both LaRusso and Lawrence make mistakes and are terrible at making decisions.
For example, when LaRusso is so against the revival of Cobra Kai, he fails to see that Lawrence is trying to teach them the right way, without the students being traumatized like he was when Kreese was the sensei.
By being stubborn and pigheaded, LaRusso starts up his own dojo in the memory of his old sensei, Mr. Miyagi. The new dojo is called MiyagiDo, and his two star students are Samantha and Robby. While teaching his students, LaRusso constantly degrades Cobra Kai, giving his pupils the mindset that Cobra Kai is pure evil.
Throughout the whole series, both LaRussso and Lawrence make major mistakes, leading their students to repeatedly getting hurt. Some of these injuries include paralysis, broken bones and severe mental trauma. All of this could have been avoided by using communication skills.
Just like any other show, they switch back and forth when filming, so you get to see everyone’s perspective. This is what makes it different: from everyone’s point of view, the other side is always wrong.
For example, all Lawrence sees is the man who screwed his life over by showing up out of nowhere and stealing his girl. He sees a man who won’t leave him alone. Someone who just has to always have the final word.
Whereas all LaRusso sees of Lawrence is a controlling bully, so he simply tried to help the girl out. It’s almost like LaRusso doesn’t see him as an equal.
Here’s the truth to the situation, LaRusso is a man who can’t get over the past. He sees himself as some humble being who knows everything, and the proper way to do everything. Basically he thinks he’s the ‘Humble Hero.’ What he lacks is true humility. He thinks all his mistakes were in the past, and not now.
Then Lawrence is trying to right many of the wrongs of his past, but he is also a simple, confused old man who can barely understand how to run Facebook, who is still trying to live life in the 80’s. Lawrence is just trying to live his life like a normal human would.
Everyone makes mistakes, and “Cobra Kai” is the perfect representation of that. The first three seasons give us an example of how our actions affect everyone around us. Season four has yet to have a release date, but my theory is that it will center around the concept of “the enemy of your enemy is your friend.”
