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Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

iamsosmrt posted:

I enjoy the earnest Daniel/Johnny scenes (they went to a bar in S1 and were close to having a "friendly" sparring session too), but the most disappointing thing about each is they may as well be non-canon since neither scene seems to have any effect on their relationships going forward. Not even a hint of "Johnny's an rear end in a top hat, but he's actually not too bad, maybe I shouldn't jump to extreme conclusions every time I hear anything about him" immediately afterwards.

Yeah the episode 10 beginning was kind of contrived IMO, and I agree with what Woden said about karate just making everything worse (since it seems to be everyone's "go-to")

Favorite gag of the season in episode 9: Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do spot eachother across the party, we see Hawk and Demetri glare at each other, then Chris and his former friend, then the third little kid with the Miyagis glaring at Bert as if they have some mysterious history hahaha

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Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

I do think it suffered from 3 main issues IMO which I hope they can course correct but may just be the nature of the beast:

1) In order to keep the drama up everyone had to start acting just a little stupider. Daniel is the main victim of this, but the misunderstandings that happened in the first season seemed a lot more real and organic, whereas here you had to have people just flat out not communicate or assume the absolute worst of every situation.

2) Growing out of this, it seems like a big part of the season required Miguel and Johnny to be out of the center of the drama in order to keep them more "innocent" or relatable or whatever. So e.g. while the other Cobra Kais were feuding Miguel was often over in the corner writing texts or emails or whatever to Sam. Same with Johnny needing to take a few eps off in order to Kreese to start getting his hooks in. So arguably the two main characters were vestigial to the central conflict and just caught the worst of it by the end of the season.

3) Basically every single conflict immediately exploded into a karate fight. In the first season there was a little of that but it was always more organic and the biggest fights came in actual dojo/tournament scenarios, not like brawls in the mall or parties or at school or whatever.

I think it was still really good but I think the natural instinct was to ramp things up with more karate and more drama, and something was lost. Like I read an interview where the idea for the school fight grew out of not wanting every season to end with a tournament, which is probably a good idea but leads to some heightened ridiculousness.

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Spacebump posted:

Cobra Kai never dies.

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

quote:

Per Deadline, YouTube is currently in the process of releasing Cobra Kai Season 3 to its production company, Sony Pictures Television. This development comes as the Google-owned streaming platform looks to take a step back from premium original scripted programming.

Sounds like from this and the linked Deadline article, it's that YouTube itself isn't going to continue pursuing premium original content. Which makes sense since that isn't necessarily their strength and now you have all the big boys trying to get in on the game at basically the same time. The article does seem optimistic as it relates to CK nearing a deal with another service tho.

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Roach Warehouse posted:

I was gonna say the best parts of each season are when Daniel and Johnny almost seem like they're becoming friends, until events already in motion set them back at each other's throats.

Then I realised the best part is any time Amanda makes fun of the whole karate rivalry thing.

Yeah all of this is awesome. I am hoping with Kreese established as probably the big villain for season 3 we get a more extended Daniel and Johnny team up.

This show is so amazingly good at portraying cycles of abuse and bullying and really exploring it from all angles. It's obviously silly on the surface that every disagreement gets resolved with karate kicks but the emotional basis for those karate kicks is otherwise so well developed.

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Yeah I literally have never watched the entirety of 2 in my life and only recently caught maybe 40% of it on cable. So far there hasn't been anything I felt like I missed in CK because of it. 3 is ridiculous but also has some good hammy acting from the villains.

And yeah Daniel and Miyagi's relationship is the heart of all three.

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Lemony posted:

The latter seasons of Community were so-so, but they had a decent episode where a director goes off on Annie for thinking that The Karate Kid is about Daniel. He's got a whole bit about how the story is actually about Mr. Miyagi and Daniel is just kind of the PoV character.

I don’t think I realized until that episode that Morita got an Oscar nom, but he absolutely earned it on the strength of the drunk scene. That one still hits so hard.

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Yeah agreed with previous two posters: I def think it should end before it drags but I think we have more than a season of material left. I wouldn't be unsatisfied if they ended it here tho, end of season 2 was Johnny's lowest point and great for an Act 2 ending going into the final stretch. Basically just as long as they introduce new challenges and situations and don't just bloat it rehashing the same drama.

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Weasling Weasel posted:

Netflix taking the show on allowed me to re-watch the season again for the first time since it originally aired, and I desperately want a resolution. Come on Netflix, Season 3 was filmed ages ago, give it to me :(

I get securing the deal and then releasing the first 2 seasons to build hype but yeah I don't get waiting until 2021 when you have the perfect opportunity to release it while everyone is hungry for new content (I guess there's a strong possibility that they really just don't have much left in the pipeline and this is part of a process to slow roll it tho)

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

pentyne posted:

Am I the only one who thought the scene at the end of S1 where all of a sudden she breaks out all these slick karate moves was completely out of place?

She spends the entire season being a bratty teen and we're supposed to believe she's kept up with martial arts training the entire time?

I get the whole train Robbie from scratch to compete in a few weeks, TV magic training etc. but Sam spent literally 0 time showing the slightest interest in anything Miyagi-Do and then she's suddenly a trained fighter.

The impression I got was that she had been trained by Daniel when she was younger and she still seems to be pretty active and in good shape, she just became a teenager and started blowing off her dad and hanging with her friends.

Basically everyone else on the show goes from zero training to doing black belt poo poo in weeks/months so i can easily buy her potentially having years of prior training and being able to pull it out just as easily.

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

So the scene at the beginning of Karate Kid 2 where Kreese physically attacks Johnny for losing was filmed for and supposed to be included in part 1. It makes the theme of bullying being a cycle (a theme that Cobra Kai is basically entirely about) way more apparent.

It is kind of a bummer that the original went for a more black and white situation where Johnny was just a rich douche with no nuance, but it is very good that Cobra Kai grows out of and explores the idea that bullying is self perpetuating and that defaulting to karate kicking is worse than talking and exploring what you have in common (also I like the light retcon that while Johnny had the appearance of being rich it turns out that he himself had more in common with Daniel, having a single mother who took a path that was more about giving her son a better life).

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Saying Daniel is the real bully is stupid, Johnny and like 4 of his friends beat the poo poo out of a kid half their size for pouring some water on them, that's clearly way over the line.

Again, the interesting thing is that Johnny was acting out a cycle of abuse and that's what Cobra Kai is exploring not "well ackshooally Daniel was the bad guy and Johnny the good guy :smug:"

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

This cover of Auld Lang Syne is a banger

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Best part of the season was the Miyagi Do/Eagle Fang summit and their list of disputed items:

- new name
- gi design
- post-training snacks
- sensei dispute resolution protocol

Also this season's first half suffered from a major problem with season 2, which was that, in order to keep Miguel and Johnny more "innocent" they had to be off doing their own stuff while Kreese was ordering children to cripple each other. This got better in the last half tho and hopefully with mostly everyone being under Miyagi Do and the focus being more on the tournament this won't be as big an issue next season, although I do feel like Cobra Kai is going to need more personality on their side instead of just "psychotic bullies" and "severe daddy issues". Re-adding the established season 1 bully was a good idea to flesh out their side tho.

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Rhyno posted:

Whoa, that was the same kid who played Daniel's son previously. I guess he quit drinking the butter.

I wonder if the promise of doing cool karate in a season or two incentivized him

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Normy posted:

I love that this show never shies away from a fight. If there's any reason at all to have a fight scene, they'll provide.

"What do you mean you're out of mint chip??" *karate chops ice cream display case*

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Karate Kid has an 89% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and even the remake of the same name has a 66%

Also Rotten Tomatoes is a terrible judge of quality. It's a decent enough judge of popularity but since we are sitting in a thread for season 3 of a wildly popular relaunch of the franchise I feel like we don't need to be out there with dowsing rods trying to figure that poo poo out

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Trump's in office. There was a suicide bombing on Christmas Day and people have forgotten about it already. A karate brawl would be maybe go viral on Twitter until something stupider happened an hour or two later

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Lurdiak posted:

(except Aisha who is just absent)

Bringing back Aisha could actually be a good motivator for some interesting interactions. Like I doubt she would come back and just join Cobra Kai but it could be interesting seeing her react to all the changes, especially Demetri dating Yasmine and everyone villainizing Robby and Tory without understanding they are also victims. Also both sides might try to recruit her.

Otherwise yeah I agree with your assessment, as of the end of S3 it's basically all the faves on the same side which made me initially think that S4 would be a good ending point, but it sounds like they have multiple seasons planned after that so hopefully we get some more nuance added and don't just have characters regressing next season for the purposes of extending the drama. My one big fear is that they make Johnny's temptation to regress and rejoin Cobra Kai to be with his son a major aspect, and have him flip again at the end of next season.

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Propaganda Machine posted:

Maybe it's just my newfangled brains talking, but I'm surprised they didn't just recast her. It's not like "Young, pretty, competent female actress" is a difficult brief to fulfill.

I’m sure there was contractual and SAG considerations, but honestly it’s kind of refreshing that they recognized the creepiness but didn’t fire this young woman just to stick with always needing a love interest.

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

BiggerBoat posted:

The whole thing is a work of art but the lack of any real typos takes it down a notch.

I honestly think it's better this way, he's not typing in all caps (only) because he is dumb or rushing through in stream of consciousness mode. He is trying really hard with this letter he just doesn't realize that typing in all caps and recounting your life one year at a time is a faux pas. So he's dumb in a more subtle way than "he can't spell".

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Anne Whateley posted:

I just googled, and he did it way pre-Cobra Kai. That said, if anyone ever refers to Macchio as daddy, please don't tell me I don't want to know

The Karate Daddy

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Just finished this, felt it was a big step up from the last two seasons specifically in the way the karate fighting was mostly limited to the tournament, sparring during training, and a few isolated incidents that didn't become cartoonish karate brawls

Just some random responses from things that caught my eye

MiddleOne posted:

Without the preferential judging she would have lost the match, specifically the first point which the referee deemed out of bounds. It also harkens back to Silvers comment that she can do whatever because the referee won't end the match on a technicality..

There was also the accidental eye jab which was given a warning but that Johnny and Daniel seemed confident merited a point deduction. With that plus the out of bounds non-point, Sam should have been significantly in the lead, that's basically a full two point swing in Tory's favor the judge engineered


punk rebel ecks posted:

Finished the season.

My thoughts:


- Having Amanda become Tory's mentor was insanely stupid. Why would Tory, especially with her personality, even bother listening to her arch rivals mom? That's a stretch even for the show.


So I actually really liked the way they eased into this. I think it's a stretch to call Amanda a "mentor" at all, at best she is a lady who has stated that she wishes Tory vaguely well and won't use her wealth and influence to literally destroy her life. In their initial encounter Amanda confronted her and essentially got Tory fired and basically immediately realized she hosed up by harassing a teenager. After Kreese told her about Tory's situation Amanda did a half-assed "I'll use money to solve this!" and pissed Tory off again. The turning point was basically the skating rink incident followed by Tory's aunt showing up. Since the LaRusso's were the key decider on whether Tory could even go back to school, she was basically backed into a corner and had to have faith that Amanda was actually true to her word and would help (really "let") Tory try and get her life back together. After that the only interaction was at the tournament where she just asked Tory to not use any dirty tricks that could seriously hurt Sam. The whole "you should really get counseling for your anger problems" was maybe a "mentor" moment but it was also a condition for the LaRusso's to sign off on her coming back to school, which she needed to do if she wants custody of her brother when her mom dies

punk rebel ecks posted:


- Samantha was just far too mean this season. I get it Tory tormented you, but she just took things way too far.


I agree this was a bit of an overcorrection from previous seasons where Sam was a major goody-goody, but I do like that they gave her more edge and the drive to be aggressive and rebel a bit from her father's way. I think the major sympathy they were trying to dump onto Tory's character exasperated this problem and we could've used more of a refresher on how intense it got and how much Tory had tormented Sam the previous season(s). I kind of had the same issue with Hawk in the first few episodes, if you hadn't just watched season 3 it's easy to forget that Hawk went real evil and broke Dimitri's arm, so they just launched right into giving him a bunch of poo poo. But that got resolved in the first few episodes, Sam/Tory's arc was spread out the entire season and Tory's scenes were mostly dedicated to her struggling so the animosity seemed extremely one-sided, and the occasional petty poo poo Tory did seemed half-hearted by comparison.

MichaelFlatley posted:

After marathoning the season did anyone else think Chozen was initially written to be Julie Pierce?

My issue with this: if there were more scenes with Chozen or even just some hints at the idea of recruiting Miyagi's other students then maybe. Otherwise why not just use the time in between seasons to see if they could book Swank? Unless they really, really had a solid idea that they needed to end on the good guys recruiting someone from the franchise as a counter-balance to last season, as well as an arc already planned around this for next season with a super firm "no" from Swank, it would seem odd to swap her out instead of just cutting the scene and maybe replacing it with a scene between Daniel and Johnny.

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

ilmucche posted:

Larusso knocks out/injures like 5 players after a hockey game and everyone is cool with it. The rules are different in the valley.

Tbf they were a bunch of pro athletes about to jump a guy for trash talking during a game. I doubt they would be eager to go to the cops like “yeah a half a dozen of us corned one guy and he beat the stuffing out of all of us like it was nothing”.

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Was rewatching some of the fight sequences today in particular the tourney fights, I especially love the way each character's personality comes through in their style.

There's also some foreshadowing for the referee buy-off in episode 9 when Tory scores a point on Devon (new Eagle Fang girl) while she was definitively out of bounds.

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Yeah agree with Golden Bee and HerpicleOmnicron5 (lol great name) that Robbie's slower burn arc worked for me this season in a way it hadn't in previous seasons.

What was pretty cool is he made it clear he wasn't even really following Kreese or Silver at all since he didn't really trust them either. His whole arc this season was basically that he had felt betrayed/let down by every other father/mentor figure and thought he could just be on his own, maybe "using" Kreese and accepting Silver's gifts but never acting subservient to him.

Him taking someone else under his wing and realizing being a mentor is a lot harder than it seems was a good way to snap him out of that IMO. I think the realization that Anthony LaRusso was Kenny's bully is also a bigger moment than it appears, since he had to have realized he could have stopped this entire situation at the root with a phone call if he had actually been paying attention/cared enough to really dig into what was going on. Not to mention cutting off all ties with the LaRussos made it harder to talk to Anthony afterword to try and salvage the situation.

He had been on the verge of forgiving Johnny at a lot of points throughout the series, his big beef with him post-S3 was he felt like Johnny "made his choice" by choosing to focus on Miguel's rehab instead of helping Robbie through his time in juvie. Knowing how complex these things can be has to soften that blow somewhat. I do think a few more scenes with them together could have helped but it didn't feel out of left field for him to see the eventual outcome of Cobra Kai thinking -- and how that hatred had effected Kenny, effected him and almost certainly had to have effected Johnny -- and reach back out to him.

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

BiggerBoat posted:

I'm still confused.

Was there a black Trans-Am that she demanded in her new contract?

I’m sure you could find info but from what I recall it amounted to a single social media post where she indicated they weren’t having her back for season 3 and that sucked because she needed money for her car. I don’t think there was anything more definitive released, but now that she made an appearance in s4 maybe she will come back with a bigger role again next season.

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Dawgstar posted:

I started watching a Japanese sensei who teaches karate and reacting to the show and he pointed out some interesting stuff. What stuck out to me was he said the Miyagi-do rules were written very well and the first one translates as "There is no first attack in karate" or similar and the second is about mastering the first rule but then the big rock in the dojo's garden is apparently just gibberish.

This sounds amazing, got a link?

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Flesnolk posted:

Miguel namedrops UFC in season 1 :V

The rules seem to have changed though, because in the tournaments in Cobra Kai people are kicking, punching, and elbowing each other in the face all day long

Yeah the rules definitely change, I watched the end of Karate Kid 3 and the judge explicitly says only light ("emphasis on light Mr. Barnes!") contact to the body scores points and forbids blows to the head, which is in direct contradiction to what happens in Karate Kid 1.

Also holy smokes Daniel spends the entirety of the Karate Kid 3 finale running out of bounds, until he realizes he knows karate and scores a single point in sudden death. I guess on the one hand it's way more realistic that a scrawny kid with a year or so of training in karate is naturally just going to get demolished by someone way more athletic and skilled, but I definitely prefer Cobra Kai's method of "training for a few weeks lets you do crazy movie fights complete with flying kicks and blocking a roundhouse kick from someone who has 50 pounds on you with a quick wrist flick".

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Rhyno posted:

Has season 5 been confirmed as the end?

They’ve stepped that back and said they are actively working on season 6 but “planning the endgame” which is vague enough that it could be a few more seasons

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Carrie Underwood is the most famous person to be on CK by a mile. I don’t think Swank winning an Oscar 17 years ago will make her turn up her nose at a show this popular.

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Daniel works (as a character) as someone who had a rough adolescence but had someone step in and help him and then found continued success following that person’s teachings, and now thinks those teachings are the only way. There’s a bit of contrivance where the characters have to have friction for 8 out of 10 episodes only to find some common ground at the end of the season; I really liked the end of this season where Daniel flashed back to Miyagi telling him one day he’d have to do karate his way. Overall he’s kind of annoying but obviously has really good intentions, I’m glad they’ve let him take on the role of “bad guy” through not realizing he can’t force everyone into his and Miyagi’s exact way of thinking and make the world perfect.

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

The narrative of the fight tho is that Johnny has Kreese beat until Robbie interferes and Johnny gets blindsided. Daniel finishing the fight is fine in that context. Plus I liked in this season that Daniel uses his paralyzing trick on Johnny who is just like “what the hell man?” and kicks Daniel in the face.

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

iamsosmrt posted:

It's all good, the tournament was strong IMO, though I'll always stan Miguel on the show so I'm always a bit disappointed when he gets the short end of the stick.

Yeah I really wish Miguel was given a cooler moment earlier in the tourney the same way Eli and Sam were. They both got to have big eureka moments and style on some of the secondary named Cobra Kai kids before their title fights with the two main Cobra Kai antagonists. Miguel gets the same time in the montage/skills competition as everyone else and then gets 30 seconds into his fight with Eli before hurting his back and peacing out. Having even a short fight of him shutting out someone would have balanced it out a bit, and as a bonus added some extra juice to Dmitri's comment that "nobody has ever beaten Miguel".

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Edgar Allen Ho posted:

Johnny felt bizarrely absent during the tournament. He's there, he has his re-reunion with Daniel, but ultimately it feels like a showdown between Miyagi-do and Cobra Kai when it should really be Eagle Fang and Johnny in the spotlight.

Johnny's moments with Sam specifically are a highlight of the tourney for me, even just the nod and the shout he gives out when she wins her "first" match. But yeah the shuffling of Hawk to Miyagi-do and Miguel bowing out really puts Johnny and Eagle Fang on the sideline for a ton of the tournament, which was kind of the point of my last post. If they had shown Miguel to be dominant prior to his injury and not shot EF to seventh place after the skills tournament it might have made it more balanced instead of just feeling like EF was an embarrassing third wheel to real contenders. Johnny could have also given more actual advice to Sam during her fight outside of just agreeing with Daniel. Honestly more "real" coaching like "Tory drops her left shoulder before doing a high kick" would have really improved stuff over all the "believe in yourself and trust your dreams!" stuff we got.

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

"She's blocking all my punches! What should I do?"

"Have you tried punching...with your feet?"

*inspirational music swells*

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Watched through episode 8 and have plans today but will finish tomorrow. Up through the half-way point I was feeling this was a weaker season in particular because the first few episodes seemed to jettison most of the kids in favor of adult corporate espionage storylines but happy that the next 3 episodes have gotten back to the core of the show and looking forward to the resolution as well as presumably the final season focusing on another big tournament

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Hollismason posted:

I love this show, I'm on episode 6 but goddamn Silver is such a loving great villain. Also I love them having Chozen back is so great. Really liking where the series is headed.

I love that this is all over a loving kids karate school.

Martin Kove and Thomas Ian Griffith are absolutely gifts from the people who casted them in the films. It’s astounding that 30+ years later they are the best scene chewing villains you could possibly ask for.

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

PurpleSky posted:

Johnny and Daniel teaming up is one of the best parts of the show and it was fantastic to finally see them on the same page for an entire season to have it culminate into that moment with Kreese.

One of the legit low key amazing moments of the season is when a drunk and desperate Daniel is trying to goad Johnny and there’s a moment of tense music and a slow close up on Johnny’s face only for him to go “okay seriously dude what is going on with you, talk to me”. Fantastic moment showing how much the character has grown, I honestly almost got as pumped about that as some of the fights

Finished the series late last night. Like I said second half was better but there was still some rough edges. Overall there’s still this weird disconnect where this season had a more severe split between the adult and kid stuff. It didn’t occur to me until the last episode that Johnny barely interacted with some of the kids in a training capacity. After the nice moment where he wants to charge in to Cobra Kais dojo to get Devon they literally don’t speak on screen the rest of the season. The second half at least did get the Miyagis back in the dojo which helped, hopefully next season is focusing on the Sekai Tekai helps to refocus and put that aspect of the show back in the foreground

TheBuilder posted:

No, unless they like ending on a cliff hanger

Honestly tbf in context this would be fine with me: it’s already a recurring joke that Kreese has faked his own death multiple times so that would be a fitting “end” to the character. The fact that he’s on the run for breaking out of prison and doesn’t have Silver’s financial resources or the influence over Johnny or the kids makes him less of a threat overall so I could see him just disappearing for good, realizing he can’t make any headway there. Not that this will happen since this likely wasn’t the final season, but it’s not a hard cliffhanger like some previous seasons

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Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

BiggerBoat posted:

Agreed and I think they're playing up the popular idea that Daniel is actually the villain and the biggest rear end in a top hat in the first movie from the get go. They get into the idea of toxic masculinity a lot and Daniel thinks he's above it all because he's all old school/deep thinking ancient ways mystic cerebral Japanese karate guy but in this series (as well as the films), again, he's just as big of an rear end in a top hat, a catalyst and a fuckup as anyone. Hell he kept making the same stupid mistakes in the movies.

I don't think they're going out of their way to write him as sympathetic or all that wise here and the show kind of juxtaposes that against Johnny by making Lawrence have more depth and come off as very well meaning. I can't think of a single loving thing that Daniel has really learned over five seasons and whenever he's faced with any consequences, all he does is go read Miyagi's diaries and get weepy in the dojo and poo poo.

Daniel's arc is pretty hilarious in retrospect because in the first season he massively overreacts to Cobra Kai reopening, thinking that it is going to poison the brains of children and turn them into psychopathic bullies. As of season 5, it's clear he was maybe being a bit too optimistic in his fears of a teenage karate armageddon.

But seriously, season 1 Daniel is clearly in the wrong but there's also a lot of honest misunderstandings in those initial arcs. Him being a hothead who wants to confront problems head on rather than heeding Miyagi's teachings is definitely played up, but like in the original he ultimately has his heart in the right place.

After that his arc becomes somewhat muddled mainly because, again, the lesson of "maybe I shouldn't automatically assume my old rivals are all psychos planning my downfall" is immediately proven incorrect by Kreese and Silver (although Barnes being well adjusted is a welcome surprise). He doesn't have quite as clear cut an arc as Johnny who starts out like an 80s caveman so always has some room to grow and show some surprising maturity. Sometimes his lesson is "maybe I need to not be such a judgmental hothead" and then the next season its like "maybe I shouldn't be too focused on passiveness and pure defense".

Probably the biggest growth moments for him were in the last season and carried a bit into this one where he realized that just copying Miyagi's method for teaching him by rote isn't going to work on every single person, and he needs to embrace different methods, including those of his former rivals.

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