#okay even tho kreese is horrible | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

afurioushawk · 3 years

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I love the Hawk/Young Johnny comparisons,they have a fuckton of parallels! And you're spot on about Johnny not helping him with his issues,just becoming a "badass" about it. However,it might be another parallel between young Johnny and Hawk. Not only that,but it manifests in yet another Johnny/Hawk parallel,the girlfriend drama. As everyone knows, Johnny was a possessive, jealous jackass who refused to move on from the breakup,and the main reason was because Johnny "always had to fight". Usually, jealous people are either cheaters or insecure. Johnny Lawrence might be an awful person,but Ali didn't mention him being too flirty,nor having any sign of infidelity,so it's probably insecurity. Despite being a Karate black belt, winning two(?) local championships, getting popular and growing handsome due to harsh training + puberty + genetics (mom is a trophy wife),the issues 12 yo Johnny had didn't magically vanish.

Once, you said Johnny's worst trait is his general negligence. I think that's a symptom,not a cause. Johnny's main flaw,IMO,is sloth. Emotional sloth,to be more specific. He's almost always trying to avoid anything that's emotionally complicated,and has a hard time moving forward. And that's kinda shown even in Karate Kid. Okay,in that movie, Johnny is shown to be a bully with a temper,what might indicate wrath. However, there's how he wouldn't accept the breakup, even though his friends tried to help him with it. Moving on from a failed relationship is hard, overcoming trauma and abuse is hard, raising a kid is hard(specially when one is grieving the death of the only authority figure that has given one (1) fuck about their happiness),so it feels better to ignore. Hence the negligence.

A good chunk of Johnny’s issues all stem from having horrible father figures. His home life was bad enough with Sid, and Kreese was even worse, because for a while he at least seemed like the kind of father figure Johnny was looking for, up until he tried to kill him. Until the AVT, Johnny and the OG Cobras couldn’t really see that Kreese was psychologically abusive; I don’t think Johnny even now really comprehends just how bad it probably was. Bobby and Jimmy tell Johnny about how it messed them all up for a long time, even after Kreese was gone.

And it seems unlike the OG Cobras, Johnny has never gotten the help he needed to make peace with what happened between him and Kreese, and it led to his life going to shit, to him becoming a bad father, to him not really taking care of himself. And it’s led to him making some bad judgment calls as a Sensei.

Like, with regards to Ali and Johnny not moving on, we know this all ties back to Kreese’s “defeat does not exist” attitude. And Johnny gives that same advice back to his kids: “never give up the pursuit.” This is why you see Miguel and Hawk both have a difficult time letting go of their girlfriends after being dumped.

When I talk about the Johnny-Hawk parallels, Kreese’s role in Johnny’s bad treatment of Hawk is usually at the forefront of my mind. Because it’s so obviously the cycle of abuse. And let me emphasize again that, apart from the “Speak up, Lip” scene, Johnny has never mistreated Hawk out of sheer malice, he’s just never given consideration to Hawk’s feelings, pretty much ever. And you can detect the clear line between him victim-blaming Hawk for his own bullying back to Kreese browbeating Johnny for crying. We’ve gotten plenty of hints now that Johnny started out as a sensitive, shy kid, and Kreese’s abuse warped him into the bully we saw in KK. And now Johnny has done the same to Hawk, and even did extra by bringing Kreese back into the picture.

Now of course the biggest difference between Kreese and Johnny is that Johnny is capable of change. For the time being, he’s tried washing his hands of his responsibility in driving his students into the arms of Kreese, even tho he was the one who brought Kreese into their lives and as such anything bad that happens is on his shoulders. Which is why it’s vital for his character arc as a Sensei to set those wrongs right. Because if he does what quite a lot of fans want him to do - give up on CK and bring Miguel with him to MD or whatever - then all of his growth as someone who’s trying to get out of Kreese’s shadow and be a better Sensei for his kids goes straight into the toilet.

#cobra kai #johnny lawrence #john kreese #cobra kai hawk

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