Cobra Kai Season 6
SPOILERS TOTAL. You've been warned.
601: Peacetime in the Valley 2024 July 18
(First watched 2024-07-18) After the way the last season ended, a good breather. At the end of last season, they basically... won. Silver is in jail. Kreese is a fugitive. Miyagi-do / Eagle Fang are on good terms. Not everybody loved each other, but nobody wanting to kill each other.
Johnny funny as ever. Developing a training exercise about out of the frying pan and into the fire: "I'm also gonna need a frying pan."
I guess Johnny really was just squatting that building used for Eagle Fang training, as we see it demolished in this episode. That plus the students' attempt to make a name and logo for "Miyagi Fang" brought the combination of their dojos to a head again, with neither side really wanting to give up what their name meant to them (or make Mr. Miyagi look like a vampire). In the end everyone is mature enough to decide there are more important things than the name, but Johnny's concession is a bit stronger. Paraphrased: Eagle Fang was really just a continuation of Cobra Kai, so to him it would be more acceptable to merge into Miyagi-do and continue a legacy that doesn't include Kreese. Adding the eagle to the bonsai tree on their logo is a great little touch.
Most unexpected thing: Stingray deciding HE can restart Cobra Kai like Johnny did before, but training a bunch of little kids. I hope he comes up with a better name for that thing, because otherwise that's kind of a cute concept.
And Kreese... has gone overseas to try and start up Cobra Kai again.
The flow of time is really affecting the characters, as expected. Especially Kenny. A few seasons back (less than a year in-universe) he was introduced as someone small who ended up able to take on people much larger than him, but by now he's taller than Robby.
The stuff with Kenny and his brother turned out pretty interesting. At first I thought Robby was coming on too hard. He'd said what he had to say, Kenny and his brother told him to leave them alone, and... he didn't. But the way he and his friends handled themselves in the ensuing fight, not going as hard on Kenny as they could've, impressed his brother enough to make him think maybe they WOULD be a positive influence.
At one point Daniel says that after the Sekai Taikai he intends to stop being a full-time sensei. I wonder quite what he means by this. For one thing, as is he's already splitting time between that role and managing car dealerships, so it's already not exactly full time. But what lessened role is he thinking? He thought it was important for the kids of the Valley to see an alternative to Cobra Kai. Does that no longer matter without the imminent presence of something like Cobra Kai? Or does he trust people like Johnny (who at this point in the episode is still Eagle Fang) to be that more permanent positive presence?
(First watched 2024-07-19) When they started doing flashbacks with young Kreese, back in season 3 I think, I didn't expect they'd just never stop.
So even Kreese gets a kind of new training from his old... now he's even more coldhearted! Success, I guess.
It's become kind of a joke how in recent seasons Johnny has apparently had no means to support himself, so it's kind of nice that they've forced the issue--with the added complication of his family being a lot larger than it was at the beginning of the series. A job at LaRusso Auto? Ehhhhh we'll see how that goes.
After Kyler both being the initial bully for Miguel and friends, and then being part of the "Kreese asshole" wave of Cobra Kai a few seasons later, it's strange to see them fighting alongside each other. But letting bygones be bygones is a pretty common theme of this show, so at least they didn't have to wait 30 years.
(First watched 2024-07-20) Johnny dumb idea #500: use a slumber party to reignite tensions between Sam and Tory. As these things go it ended up working sideways. Apparently they'd been kind of walking on eggshells not wanting to return things to the previous status quo, but since Johnny pushed the issue they ended up more properly apologizing to each other and moving past that, so they can train with each other properly.
This new Miyagi stuff... I wonder what will come of it. Really there is a pretty big gap in what we know of him between his time in the military in the 1940s and him building the home now used as a dojo.
For people so excited about the Sekai Taikai, the students seem awfully uninformed about it. Like, I doubt that "six member team" thing was new for this year. Clearly entire dojos full of people couldn't be entering a world championship. From a show standpoint it also makes obvious sense to have fewer characters to focus on from what's become a very extended roster. Anyway, given the events of the series up to now I'm guessing the most likely team of six will be: Miguel, Robby, Hawk, Kenny, Sam, Tory. We'll see. Among the cast considered "starring", that would only leave out Demetri.
(First watched 2024-07-21) Good excuse to bring back Barnes, as a karate expert who doesn't have history with the students. The competition to be part of the six brought out the worst in Demetri and Devon, though, who are unexpectedly part of the team--at least for now. Devon's move against Kenny seems like it will wreck things between him and Anthony until the truth is known.
605: Best of the Best 2024 July 18
(First watched 2024-07-22) If this season has a theme so far, it's that maintaining peace is as hard as achieving peace. New tensions arise between people who have previously resolved them.
I thought some of the Sekai Taikai team would get changed before the actual tournament, but it didn't quite go as I expected. Devon is still in and Kenny out. Kenny is still considered a main character, though, so for sure they've got to have some major stuff for him in the back 2/3 of the season? Hawk is back in thanks to Tory dropping out, who has unexpectedly joined up with New New New Cobra Kai, if we can extrapolate from her flashbacks because she doesn't feel like she should be relying on anyone else like her friends in Miyagi-do.
Johnny and Daniel once again supposedly splits forever after the tournament, but... we'll see.
Most interesting revelation, that apparently Mr. Miyagi took part in the Sekai Taikai. As seen on screen he was never a fan of tournaments, so maybe how that went down played a role in his anti-tournament stance.
Hey so... what happened to Chozen? We saw him looking at flights back to Okinawa, but I expected he'd be there for the Sekai Taikai. Well, everyone is in Spain now and no Chozen. What's the deal? Surely if that was supposed to be it for him they would've included some farewell scene?