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SPIT YOUR SHITđŁď¸âźď¸
The thing about Cobra Kai thatâs so unfortunate is that itâs not a character focused show.
What I mean is, I think the writers approach things from a place of, âI would like X to happen, so we will make the characters get there no matter what.â Rather than from a place of, âWhat would the characters do if X happened?â
And, yeah, some cool stuff happens in Cobra Kai, but so often at the expense of characterization. And in the process of getting to a certain place they leave no time to really explore these cool characters that theyâve made.
So many of these characters have such deep traumas and insights, but the audience never gets to see anything come of them. Itâs all just left in the background.
And, possibly even worse, you end up with these 2 dimensional characters like Zara and Kwon who are just doing bad shit for the sake of doing bad shit (and Iâm not even gonna touch on the racism aspect-thatâs its own post). Iâm not saying every antagonist needs a redemption arc, but the things theyâre doing should make sense, especially if youâre going to kill one of them off. Like, if they had done ANYTHING to show that had Kwon had a different mentor things could have been different, that would have hit HARD. But instead the only real sadness is because he was a kid and Kreese brought the knife. It doesnât hit the way it could have because Kwon was more plot device than character. He should have been a parallel to characters like Hawk and Kenny. Like, this is what they could have been had they not had the support they did to get them out of Cobra Kai. This is what happens when you let hatred lead you. Instead, asshole kid got stabbed đ¤ˇââď¸
And itâs just so unsatisfying to have all of these characters and never get to see the things theyâve been through get unpacked in a meaningful way.
Itâs always episodes worth of conflict that they decide to gloss over in one line to get to the next thing. And itâs so underwhelming. You have these great moments of building only to have the worldâs most pathetic climax.
Cobra Kai has great characters with interesting backgrounds if theyâd ever follow through with the effects of those things.