#to defend Daniel from a Cobra Kai that wasnt his

[gjdraws]

(On S5 and the tragedy of Daniel LaRusso)

As @variousqueerthings and I were talking about, Cobra Kai is written by hardcore Johnny fanboys. This is not inherently a bad thing (me, I'm looking at me I'm the Johnny fan). 

But yeah, it means we've seen some iffy Daniel writing. We've seen Daniel written as: petty (the rent raising), jumping to conclusions (the miyagi do trashing being Johnny's brainchild), hurtful (lookin at you Robby) but the one thing his character has always been constant about is: violence is a last resort. 

The thing that struck me most about this season was how this show, ostensibly drawn from roots of No Be There, has finally taken that dreaded U turn to glorifying No Mercy.

Because isn't that what they did with Daniel? A boy - who defeated not one but three examples of Might is Right, and two of No Mercy - that boy, caving to those philosophies? After Chozen even taught him a Miyagi Do pressure point method of "take away the ability to wage war"?

I've read analyses of Daniel's fight against Silver which paint using the Quicksilver method in a slightly better light. And they make for a good read. But.

But. 

TKK3 was about Terry forcing Daniel to do violence. In the club, in the AVT match. "From the moment I met you, I've been making you do things you don't want to do." And then the writers made Daniel do it again. 

If Johnny's themes are about breaking out of the cycle of violence/no mercy, Daniel's themes are pacifism and finding a better way.

The trouble is, the writers took pacifism to be "back down from a fight", and in a schoolyard bully taunt sort of way (yes i see the irony). Which is so tragically oversimplified. Richard Kamen managed to show us what it is in one line, where Daniel asks Mr. Miyagi "You could've killed him, couldn't you?" And Mr. Miyagi said yes. 

Mr. Miyagi's pacifism came from having seen the long lasting evil violence inflicts, and the Might is Right being inherently useless in the end. This is a man who survived the war, and the internment camps. He knows violence and its hurts.

The thing is, pacifism means more than "I dont want to fight you". It means, "I can fight you. But I choose not to, because it will gain us both nothing". Again, Mr. Miyagi karate chopping the head of a bottle, so that the racists would understand that fighting would gain them nothing. 

But our writers ignored that and took Daniel - horribly wronged (not once, but twice) Daniel. A Daniel who'd struggled for four seasons to live up to Mr. Miyagi's ideals because he believed in them. They took that Daniel and had him win against Silver in a beatdown. Not even using the "take away the ability to wage war" method in S3, no he took the thing he hated most about himself in TKK3. And he enacted violence using the way Terry had taught him ("I've been making you do things you don't want to, Danny boy).

So who really won? I know who lost. The man who said "no passion before principle", "Before revenge, dig two graves". The man who hated the idea of "No Mercy". 

It's one thing to show Daniel winning against Silver, God knows Silver needed comeuppance. But to take the karate kid, the boy who forgave Johnny Lawrence (the telling absence of Billy's touchstone for that character "You're alright, LaRusso!"). The boy who honked Chozen's nose, and gained a valuable friend and ally decades later for it. To take that boy and have him hurt Silver (in the way Silver taught him to hurt people) and feel only vindication... That was the poorest, cheapest way to show Daniel win. 

They misunderstood and laughed at Mr. Miyagi's "defense only" karate until the only way to show Daniel as strong and righteous and victorious was to use the way of the fist. And if that isn't tragic I don't know what is. 

Guess all the No Mercy merch makes more sense now, so sorry Mr. Kamen :/

#ck negativity #cobra kai season 5 #cobra kai #daniel larusso #they could have #SHOULD have shown us Daniel go to toe to toe with Terry #but not like this #Every day i mourn Johnny not even being there #to defend Daniel from a Cobra Kai that wasnt his #To hear Johnny say He doesnt do what you say #to hear Daniels friends rally around him without ALSO going straight to fisticuffs #and ironically Terry's methods arent fisticuffs either #We couldnt see A Daniel lead posse using brains to defeat Terry? #ofc we couldnt #theyre literally selling no mercy merch unironically out here #im happy he won im sad he won like this #ck meta #replies