![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
obstinatecondolementI began writing this primer/manifesto Some Time Ago and then abandoned it because I got overwhelmed, so thank you to the ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
snowflake_challenge for the nudge to get it out of mothballs and finish it! It is not perfect: my biases are definitely present as much as I have tried not to put them to the forefront. There are parts of the fandom that I don't have much connection to and can't offer much insight on (see: the Instagram side of fandom). I also do not cover the musical or the upcoming remake. But, I think that it's certainly better than nothing! I may revisit and revise this post in the future.
So what is The Karate Kid? And what about its spin off Cobra Kai? How can you learn more about it? I’m so glad you asked.
First and foremost: the wiki is garbage. The factual and the completely fabricated lie cheek by jowl with no means of distinguishing between them. I can’t replace what the wiki should be as a resource, but I can certainly get you started.
The Karate Kid is a martial arts drama written by Robert Mark Kanen and directed by John G Avildsen that opened on June 22 1984 to critical and popular acclaim. It is the story of Daniel LaRusso, a spunky New Jersey transplant to California, who is bullied by the popular kid and karate black belt Johnny Lawrence. To defend himself, Daniel learns traditional Okinawan karate from Mr Miyagi, his building’s handyman. There are two further instalments starring Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita as Daniel and Mr Miyagi and a fourth movie starring Hilary Swank as Julie Pierce, the titular next karate kid that Mr Miyagi mentors.
Cobra Kai, which debuted on the now defunct YouTube Red in 2018, is the story of Johnny Lawrence 34 years after the events of The Karate Kid. It takes more of a shades of grey approach to characterisation and all the characters can be sympathetic or unsympathetic by turns. The show faced an uncertain future after season two, before being acquired by Netflix and renewed in June 2020, releasing season three on January 1 2021. At present, there are five seasons of the show and, while a sixth season has not yet been confirmed, it is likely that the show will be renewed. [EDIT Jan 20 2023: Cobra Kai has been renewed for a sixth and final season]
You can watch Cobra Kai season 1-5 on Netflix and seasons 1-3 are available on DVD and BluRay (season 4 is only available on DVD). The Karate Kid I-III is also available on DVD and BluRay and can be streamed on Netflix Ireland (the fourth movie and the 2010 remake with Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan are also on Irish Netflix as of January 2023).
What’s that? You want to know more?
Here are some summaries! Spoilers ahead.
The Karate Kid summary
The Karate Kid is the story of Daniel LaRusso, a teenager who has recently moved from Newark, New Jersey to Los Angeles. Specifically, Reseda. Soon after he moves, he meets love interest Ali Mills at the beach and, soon after that, her ex-boyfriend Johnny Lawrence arrives and he and Daniel fight after Johnny has a confrontation with Ali. Daniel, who had been mouthing off earlier about taking karate lessons at the Y back home, has his ass roundly kicked by Johnny, a karate black belt.
Johnny’s antagonism towards him continues as the school year begins, reaching an apex when Daniel douses him with water at the Halloween dance in retaliation and Johnny and his friends chase down and beat him near his apartment complex. He is saved by Mr Miyagi, a handyman who works there.
The next day, Daniel and Mr Miyagi go to Johnny’s dojo, Cobra Kai, and talk to his sensei, Vietnam veteran John Kreese, about the conflict between Johnny and Daniel. Kreese is adamantly on Johnny’s side and insists that if five on one is the problem, that Daniel faces Johnny one on one on the mat. Mr Miyagi intercedes and suggests that the two face off at the All Valley under-18 karate tournament.
Mr Miyagi trains Daniel over the next month and a half and, inexplicably, but inevitably, Daniel wins. Notably, Johnny, played with sensitivity and nuance by a young William Zabka, congratulates him on his win and hands him the trophy, after reluctantly fighting dirty at Kreese’s behest.
The Karate Kid II summary
The Karate Kid II begins just as the first movie ends, after the tournament. In the parking lot, Mr Miyagi and Daniel overhear Johnny being berated by Kreese for coming in second place, which escalates until Kreese puts Johnny in a choke hold. Mr Miyagi steps in and Kreese attempts to fight him, but Mr Miyagi deftly steps out of the way, leaving him to punch through the window of a nearby car instead. When Mr Miyagi has Kreese at his mercy, he honks his nose and walks off with Daniel.
After a time skip, Daniel moves in with Mr Miyagi as his mother has taken a job in Fresno for the summer. This scene also establishes that he has broken up with Ali. Shortly after, Mr Miyagi receives a letter telling him that his father is dying and he books a flight back to Okinawa to see him. It is the first time he has been home since he left as a young man. Daniel uses his college fund to go with him.
Once in Okinawa, it is revealed that Mr Miyagi’s former friend, Sato, who challenged him to a fight to the death when Mr Miyagi and his (Sato’s) fiance Yukie fell in love, still intends to follow through with this fight. His nephew, Chozen, is the primary antagonist towards Daniel in this movie. Soon after they arrive, Daniel also meets Kumiko, his love interest in this movie.
After Mr Miyagi and Daniel save Sato’s life in a typhoon and Chozen is too afraid to help, Sato calls off the fight and makes amends with Mr Miyagi. Humiliated, Chozen challenges Daniel to a fight to the death at a cultural festival, threatening Kumiko’s life if he doesn’t fight him. Daniel wins and spares Chozen, and, of course, honks his nose.
The Karate Kid III summary
Oh boy. [insert how do I even begin to explain Terry Silver picture]. Okay, let’s get into it. The Karate Kid III starts with Kreese, down on his luck, having lost all of his students after the events of the first and second movies. He goes to meet his friend and landlord, Terry Silver, who lives in the iconic Ennis house and explains that he’s lost everything and is closing up business. When he says that he’ll get him the rent when he can, Terry exclaims that he doesn’t want the rent, that he bought the property for Kreese. He hatches a revenge plan to get back at Mr Miyagi and Daniel and sends Kreese off to Tahiti. Martin Kove, who plays Kreese, had scheduling conflicts which necessitated another villain and thank all the Gods of happenstance that what we got was Terry Silver.
As Kreese is leaving for Tahiti, Mr Miyagi and Daniel are arriving back in California. When they reach Daniel’s old apartment building they find major construction underway and a neighbour explains that the complex is being remade into condos and that Daniel’s mother is in New Jersey caring for his uncle Louie. Mr Miyagi agrees to allow Daniel to stay with him. Before they leave and as they are carrying Mr Miyagi’s bonsai trees from a workshop to the truck, Daniel asks Mr Miyagi if he ever considered starting a bonsai shop. Mr Miyagi confesses that it was his dream. Daniel then uses his college fund (I know, I know, he used it to get to Okinawa — Mr Miyagi won the money back in a bet when they were there) to get a lease on a property to make this dream a reality. Mr Miyagi is reluctant at first to accept this generosity, but is incredibly touched and makes Daniel a partner in the business.
Daniel gets a letter from the All-Valley committee inviting him to defend his title and he is excited to learn that a new rule would mean he would only have to fight in the final match. Mr Miyagi is against him fighting in a tournament and convinces him not to fight. Meanwhile, Terry Silver has hired “karate’s bad boy” Mike Barnes to fight in the tournament and intimidate Daniel into signing up. He escalates until Daniel agrees to fight, but Mr Miyagi will not agree to train him.
Terry Silver, comes to visit Mr Miyagi’s house under the pretence of wanting to apologise for the actions of John Kreese, who he claims is dead and establishes trust with Daniel. Later, he offers to train him for the tournament and begins a campaign of… what can only be described as physical and psychological torture. He gets Daniel to train against a wooden dummy that makes his hands bleed and… well, watch the movie. It has to be seen to be believed. Many people ship Daniel/Terry in a dub conny D/s way and I don’t not see that, so if you’re wary of fucked up power dynamics and mind games, be aware that they are very much there.
Eventually, after Daniel punches a guy who was (unwantedly) hitting on his friend, Jessica Andrews, and breaks his nose, Daniel realises that he doesn’t like the aggressive style of karate he has been learning and doesn’t know who he is anymore. He decides to quit the tournament and tells Mr Miyagi that he’s going to tell Silver, who he believes meant well (oh Daniel…).
Back at the Cobra Kai dojo, Terry reveals his duplicity to Daniel and he, Kreese and Barnes confront him. Daniel tries to run away but is pursued by Barnes, who is then stopped by Mr Miyagi, who had followed him. Mr Miyagi beats both Terry and Kreese, who are not perturbed and say that if Daniel doesn’t fight in the tournament he’ll be fighting for the rest of his life. Mr Miyagi finally agrees to train Daniel.
At the tournament, Terry instructs Barnes to win a point and then lose it repeatedly by breaking the rules, so that Daniel is in agony by the sudden death round. It comes to sudden death and, remembering Mr Miyagi’s lessons, Daniel scores the winning point.
The Next Karate Kid… also exists
There is also a fourth movie called The Next Karate Kid, which is about Julie Pierce and Mr Miyagi, but I have not seen it. It is not necessary to see it to understand Cobra Kai as Julie has not yet appeared in the show.
The Karate Kid 2010 is another movie that exists
The Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan remake is another one that I haven’t seen personally. It is not in the same continuity as the original movies and Cobra Kai show.
Which brings us to Cobra Kai! Cobra Kai is the story of Johnny Lawrence, Daniel’s opponent from the first movie, whose life has gone down the toilet in the intervening years. He is an alcoholic and a deadbeat dad who, in the first episode, loses his job as a handyman. Where do we go from here?
Season one summary
In season one, Johnny re-opens the Cobra Kai dojo after saving his neighbour Miguel from a group of bullies (he was mostly concerned about them messing with his car, but he does get better). Daniel LaRusso, now the face and owner of a successful chain of auto dealerships, loses his entire mind about the reemergence of Cobra Kai in the Valley and this forms the core of the conflict in season one. Johnny’s son Robby, initially wanting to hurt his dad but later forming a genuine bond with Daniel, goes to work for LaRusso Auto and begins to train in Miyagi-Do karate. The season ends with the All Valley tournament. Johnny has taught his students well, but they have become aggressive and some fight dirty, even when he cautions them not to, including against Robby. Miguel wins the tournament and Robby, injured, comes in second place. The season ends with Kreese reappearing in the Cobra Kai dojo to congratulate Johnny.
Season two summary
Season two opens with Johnny and Kreese fighting in the Cobra Kai dojo. Johnny confronts Kreese about his actions towards him but Kreese brushes him off, which enrages Johnny. Kreese, however, eventually manages to worm his way into Johnny’s trust and is allowed to teach beside him in the dojo. Daniel, adamant that Cobra Kai doesn’t take over the Valley, begins to teach his daughter, Samantha, as well as Robby, and seeks more students. Sam, who was dating Miguel in season one before they broke up at the beach in a confrontation that involved Robby, begins to date Robby. Meanwhile, a new girl, Tory, joins Cobra Kai and strikes up a relationship with Miguel. After a series of events cascade, ending with Samantha drunkenly kissing Miguel at a party, the season reaches its apex with a fight in the school where Tory announces over the intercom that she’s coming for Sam. Robby and Miguel try to break up the fight, but become involved and Robby accidentally kicks Miguel over a second floor railing. Johnny, distraught, goes back to the dojo only to discover that Kreese has taken over the lease and the dojo, as he believes that Johnny has lost his way in teaching the students mercy.
Season three summary
In season three, Johnny is a drunken mess, Robby is on the run, Miguel is in a coma and Daniel’s business is on the rocks after the school fight. Daniel and Johnny briefly team up to try to find Robby, but lose patience with each other after a short while. After Robby is found at his mother’s rehab facility, Daniel calls the police and asks Robby to give himself up, which Robby, understandably, takes as a betrayal. After Johnny promises to come and see him in juvie, he stands him up to pray with Miguel’s family at the hospital and Robby’s heart hardens further against both of them. He is given a hard time by other inmates until Kreese visits him and, on his advice, he adopts the philosophy of striking first and establishes himself as someone who it is unwise to give trouble to.
After Miguel wakes up, he can’t move his legs and uses a wheelchair for a few episodes. Full disclosure, I found a lot of the portrayal of Miguel’s recovery to be ableist — nobody ever said that it was possible to live a full and happy life even if he didn’t regain his mobility, for instance, and it feels like the writers wanted him to be back to “normal” as soon as they possibly could manage it.
Sam, and the other Miyagi-Do students, train in secret before Daniel agrees to teach them again. Unfortunately, this comes after another fight which traumatises Sam and she doesn’t want anything to do with karate anymore. Her struggle with PTSD, panic attacks and flashbacks continues throughout the season.
Johnny starts a new dojo, Eagle Fang, and resists multiple attempts by Kreese to come back to Cobra Kai and embrace “strike first, strike hard, no mercy.”
After Robby leaves juvie, he asks Kreese if he can stay at the dojo, which Kreese allows.
In the climax of season three, the Cobra Kai students attack the LaRusso house, where Eagle Fang and Miyagi-Do are meeting to try and figure out how to work together.
When Johnny finds Miguel beaten at home, he goes to fight Kreese and accidentally knocks Robby unconscious. Kreese nearly gets the better of him, but Daniel arrives just in time to bust out some moves he learned earlier in the season in Okinawa (he went to Japan to save his business and took a side quest to Okinawa where he reconnected with Kumiko and Chozen, who taught him aspects of Miyagi-Do karate that Mr Miyagi had never revealed to him). It seems like Daniel is going to kill Kreese when he has him at his mercy, but then Sam and Miguel arrive and it is agreed that they will settle things at the tournament. Daniel and Johnny resolve to work together to beat Kreese. Kreese, meanwhile, is seen phoning an old friend.
Season four summary
Season four, which dropped on December 31 2021, begins with Kreese trying to convince a newly mindful and vegan Terry Silver to come back to help him with Cobra Kai. Terry refuses at first, but then remembers who he is, Simba style, and returns.
Daniel and Johnny have trouble working together and, after several stops and starts, decide to compete separately.
The All-Valley committee changes the rules so that there will be a girl’s competition alongside the boy’s competition, rather than continuing to run a co-ed tournament, with the winning dojo overall being the one with the most points between both competitions combined. This leads to a showdown between Tory and Sam and Hawk and Robby, with Tory and Hawk respectively as the victors. Cobra Kai wins the overall trophy. Irony of ironies, had Johnny and Daniel continued to work as one dojo, they would have won.
The season ends with Miguel leaving to try and find his father, Robby finding and forgiving Johnny, Terry betraying Kreese by having him framed for aggravated assault and attempted murder because he hurt his feelings and Daniel teaming up with Chozen to continue the fight against Cobra Kai.
Season 5 summary
Season five begins where the previous season left off, with Miguel arriving in Mexico to look for his father (Robby and Johnny follow soon after). He finds his father after saving his girlfriend’s son from wandering into traffic and has a pleasant dinner with him, leaving him under the impression that his mother misled him about his father’s character. Soon though, it becomes apparent that his father was exactly the man that Carmen made him out to be and Miguel manages to get away from him and arrives straight into the waiting arms of Johnny, while a jealous Robby looks on. Robby and Miguel continue to have interpersonal issues through the early part of the season until Johnny gets them to “fight it out” and they make peace with each other. When the three of them arrive back in California, Carmen lets Johnny know that her menstrual cycle is late and that she may be pregnant. This is confirmed shortly after and they are both very happy. Johnny resolves to be a better father to all his children.
Meanwhile, Daniel and Chozen have been trying to take down Terry Silver’s Cobra Kai with little success. Terry Silver has been recruiting teachers from South Korea, specifically the granddaughter of Master Kim, who taught him and Kreese after they came home from the Vietnam war, Kim Da Eun and her entourage. Daniel tracks down his old nemesis from Karate Kid III, Mike Barnes, and tries to enlist him as an ally, only for Terry Silver to burn down Barnes’ furniture shop. Terry also conspires to make Daniel look irrational and violent in the eyes of his wife Amanda at a charity event by gaslighting him and Amanda takes the kids and goes away to her mother’s home in another state. After Daniel tries to talk to Stingray (who Terry Silver assaulted in season 4 and convinced to tell the police that Kreese had been the one to assault him) and is beaten up by Terry, he goes to Johnny for help, who initially says that he has other priorities now besides the karate war (see: a new baby). To celebrate, they hire a party limo and go out drinking with Chozen, Amanda (whose cousin, Jessica Andrews from Karate Kid III, told her that, no actually, Terry Silver is a very bad man and Daniel is not being irrational) and Carmen (who is not drinking but is having a good time) and Daniel’s cousin Louie. Through one thing and another, Chozen, Daniel and Johnny get separated from the group and turn out to be abducted by Mike Barnes, furious that his life was ruined by Daniel’s reappearance. The very intoxicated trio of Mike, Johnny and Chozen decide to go and take on Terry Silver at his mansion, while Daniel is left behind. The fight at the mansion goes extremely poorly, until Johnny, upon seeing an ultrasound picture of his and Carmen’s unborn baby that falls out of his pocket, gets a second wind and turns the tide.
The teen characters, including Tory (who has a subplot involving trying to free Kreese from prison, which ends with him telling her to do what’s best for her and her feeling abandoned by him), are at the same time acting alone, trying to steal evidence that Terry Silver cheated in the All-Valley Tournament in the previous season and get jumped by the Cobra Kai students after being betrayed by one of their own (who never actually wanted to leave Cobra Kai in the first place and who wasn’t treated very nicely by the other members of Eagle Fang). Daniel arrives the dojo and ends up in a fight against Terry Silver, who has arrived straight from the fight at his mansion. Daniel wins the fight using both the elements of the quicksilver method from the third movie and a crane kick and footage is played on the TV screens in the dojo that exposes Terry’s cheating. The Cobra Kai students, disgusted, throw away their Cobra Kai merch at his feet and leave. The season ends with Terry Silver’s arrest after Stingray revises his testimony regarding his assault. As Daniel and Johnny joke that maybe he and Kreese will be cellmates, it is revealed that Kreese has escaped prison.
So that’s the canon. What about the fandom?
Fandom events and communities
![[tumblr.com profile]](https://www.tumblr.com/favicon.ico)
allvalley100 — a weekly drabble challenge hosted on Tumblr that I co-mod
ckhalloween22 — a Halloween event on Tumblr that ran during October 2021 and 2022 involving 31 spooky prompts in year one and 5 prompts in year two. The original blog has been deleted, so I am linking to the 2022 blog
cobrakaisecretsanta — just what it sounds like. A secret Santa event that ran on Tumblr in 2020, 2021 and 2022 (from a new blog and new mod)
cobrakaikink — a kink meme for all things Karate Kid and Cobra Kai hosted here on Dreamwidth
cobra_kai_snake_pit — a largely inactive Dreamwidth group that I co-mod. I’d love to see more activity on it in 2023!
The Cobra Kai Fan Fic Awards — an event hosted on Discord entering its fifth year where the fandom votes on fics from the previous year in a variety of categories. The invite link will expire in seven days, so if you are reading this after that feel free to message me and I will send you a new one. Alternately, the Tumblr blog for the awards iskk-ckffawards and they will post invites to the Discord server when the next awards show is imminent. They will also post polls to nominate and vote on fics from this account.
But why get into Cobra Kai fandom in the first place? What does it have going for it besides the karate war and the generational trauma? Well we have pretty great ships. Here is a non-exhaustive list of some.
Mini Ship Manifestos
Carmen/Johnny, aka Jarmen: Carmen Diaz is Johnny’s student Miguel’s mother and Johnny’s love interest. The two have a sweet, understated affection for each other. Also they are both smoking hot.
Daniel/Amanda, aka Damanda: Shipping a canon married couple can seem passé in fandom circles, particularly when there’s a big m/m juggernaut in “competition” with the ship, but these two are delightful together. For me it really starts to sing in season three when Amanda gets on board with being as feral as the guys on the show.
Daniel/Johnny, aka LawRusso: The most represented ship by far on Ao3. These men have been obsessed with each other for over thirty years. We have canonical enemies-to-friends (sort of)! We just need to push them that liiiittle bit further and where better to do that than in fic?
Daniel/Amanda/Johnny, aka LawRussos: Remember what I said about fandom tending to gloss over female love interests when there was a big slash ship to attend to? Instead, why not both! But this is far from just resolving a love triangle by turning it into a triad, this thing has legs, baby! Johnny and Amanda’s dynamic brings so much to both the Daniel/Johnny and the Daniel/Amanda sides of the equation. Johnny and Amanda best friendship when??
Daniel/Kumiko, aka Damiko: Kumiko is Daniel’s love interest from the second film and they are unspeakably adorable together. TKK2 Daniel is in peak loverboy mode and it is precious as is Kumiko herself. I love Amanda with all my heart, but I desperately wish that the show had brought back Kumiko as Daniel’s wife.
Daniel/Terry, aka Silverusso: For lovers of all things dark and twisted! It’s hard to look at TKK3 and not, at some point, think… wow. I wouldn’t mind Thomas Ian Griffith intimidating me and making me feel small with his lorgness. Or. Um. Just me? Okay. But, anyway, the movie could very easily be reworked into a 50 Shades of Silver fic, and if that’s your jam then this is the ship for you.
Demetri/Eli “Hawk” Moscowitz, aka Binary Boyfriends: Demetri and Hawk, né Eli, are best friends who drift apart after Hawk joins Cobra Kai and adopts a new persona, leaving behind the “nerd shit” that they had bonded over before. But that’s maybe misleading: they remain friends until Demetri takes a stand against Cobra Kai and earns Hawk’s enmity. Gasp! Friends-to-enemies! This ship has childhood friendship, betrayal and a complex, evolving relationship. What’s not to love?
Johnny/Bobby, aka Bonny: Bobby Brown is one of Johnny’s close circle of friends from the first movie. In the show, he comes back as a pastor (not a priest, as he has to remind Johnny often. I wonder why he’s so keen to make the clarification 👀). Bobby and Johnny are tactile and loving towards each other and their easy physical affection for each other is notable and touching given how mired in toxic masculinity Johnny can be.
Johnny/Dutch: Like Bobby, Dutch is one of Johnny’s close friends from the movie. He is ride or die for his boy Johnny Lawrence and they cannot keep their hands off of each other. And that’s just the canon, babes!
Kreese/Silver, aka Cobra Husbands: Full disclosure, this is my OTP. Prior to watching The Karate Kid III I hated Kreese in a very uncomplicated way, but seeing him with someone who adored him so completely… changed me. Kreese/Silver has it all: friends bonded by war, devotion, estrangement (what happened?? I certainly don’t know, but let’s write fic about it). Whether you prefer them sweet and devoted or acting like bitter divorcees, this franchise has you covered.
Miguel/Hawk, aka Migueli: If you like friends-to-lovers you will like Miguel/Hawk. Hawk even has a nickname for Miguel, El Serpiente, and honestly what’s more coupley than that?
Miguel/Sam, aka Samguel: Another canon ship that is very sweet and wholesome. They have their ups and downs, but Sam and Miguel never stop loving each other. They have a relationship mascot, a plushie Miguel wins for Sam called Señor Octopus! Peak cute teen ship.
Robby/Miguel, aka Kiaz: Johnny’s son and Johnny’s surrogate son, the drama of it all! They are intensely jealous of each other in canon, both over love interests and, more importantly, their perceived positioning in the hierarchy of Johnny’s affections. Oh boys. Why don’t you just kiss?
Robby/Sam: Two houses, both alike in dignity. Robby and Sam are the children of the members of the rivalry central to the show and boy does that play a role! Robby also lives with the LaRussos for a spell and the ~forbidden romance~ dial goes up to eleven.
Robby/Tory, aka Keenry: Tory and Robby both have criminal records and have had to be more grown up than they ought to be from too young (Robby’s mother is an addict and Johnny is absent and Tory’s mother is on dialysis and she has had to be the breadwinner for her family) and as such they understand each other on a deeper level than many of the other characters do. Also they both deserve nice things and they could be that for each other. Another great enemies-to-friends-to-lovers ship.
Sam/Tory: Daughter of homoerotic karate rivalry rides again! Sam and Tory hate each other from their first meeting and the sparks that fly can read pretty darn ambiguous. I made a vid set to Jolene about the Tory-Sam-Miguel love triangle that, in the grand tradition of Jolene, asks the question: who are you really in love with?
A (very incomplete) rec list
Some disclaimers:
Without further ado, here are the recs!
snowflake_challenge for the nudge to get it out of mothballs and finish it! It is not perfect: my biases are definitely present as much as I have tried not to put them to the forefront. There are parts of the fandom that I don't have much connection to and can't offer much insight on (see: the Instagram side of fandom). I also do not cover the musical or the upcoming remake. But, I think that it's certainly better than nothing! I may revisit and revise this post in the future. So what is The Karate Kid? And what about its spin off Cobra Kai? How can you learn more about it? I’m so glad you asked.
First and foremost: the wiki is garbage. The factual and the completely fabricated lie cheek by jowl with no means of distinguishing between them. I can’t replace what the wiki should be as a resource, but I can certainly get you started.
The Karate Kid is a martial arts drama written by Robert Mark Kanen and directed by John G Avildsen that opened on June 22 1984 to critical and popular acclaim. It is the story of Daniel LaRusso, a spunky New Jersey transplant to California, who is bullied by the popular kid and karate black belt Johnny Lawrence. To defend himself, Daniel learns traditional Okinawan karate from Mr Miyagi, his building’s handyman. There are two further instalments starring Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita as Daniel and Mr Miyagi and a fourth movie starring Hilary Swank as Julie Pierce, the titular next karate kid that Mr Miyagi mentors.
Cobra Kai, which debuted on the now defunct YouTube Red in 2018, is the story of Johnny Lawrence 34 years after the events of The Karate Kid. It takes more of a shades of grey approach to characterisation and all the characters can be sympathetic or unsympathetic by turns. The show faced an uncertain future after season two, before being acquired by Netflix and renewed in June 2020, releasing season three on January 1 2021. At present, there are five seasons of the show and, while a sixth season has not yet been confirmed, it is likely that the show will be renewed. [EDIT Jan 20 2023: Cobra Kai has been renewed for a sixth and final season]
You can watch Cobra Kai season 1-5 on Netflix and seasons 1-3 are available on DVD and BluRay (season 4 is only available on DVD). The Karate Kid I-III is also available on DVD and BluRay and can be streamed on Netflix Ireland (the fourth movie and the 2010 remake with Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan are also on Irish Netflix as of January 2023).
What’s that? You want to know more?
Here are some summaries! Spoilers ahead.
The Karate Kid summary
The Karate Kid is the story of Daniel LaRusso, a teenager who has recently moved from Newark, New Jersey to Los Angeles. Specifically, Reseda. Soon after he moves, he meets love interest Ali Mills at the beach and, soon after that, her ex-boyfriend Johnny Lawrence arrives and he and Daniel fight after Johnny has a confrontation with Ali. Daniel, who had been mouthing off earlier about taking karate lessons at the Y back home, has his ass roundly kicked by Johnny, a karate black belt.
Johnny’s antagonism towards him continues as the school year begins, reaching an apex when Daniel douses him with water at the Halloween dance in retaliation and Johnny and his friends chase down and beat him near his apartment complex. He is saved by Mr Miyagi, a handyman who works there.
The next day, Daniel and Mr Miyagi go to Johnny’s dojo, Cobra Kai, and talk to his sensei, Vietnam veteran John Kreese, about the conflict between Johnny and Daniel. Kreese is adamantly on Johnny’s side and insists that if five on one is the problem, that Daniel faces Johnny one on one on the mat. Mr Miyagi intercedes and suggests that the two face off at the All Valley under-18 karate tournament.
Mr Miyagi trains Daniel over the next month and a half and, inexplicably, but inevitably, Daniel wins. Notably, Johnny, played with sensitivity and nuance by a young William Zabka, congratulates him on his win and hands him the trophy, after reluctantly fighting dirty at Kreese’s behest.
The Karate Kid II summary
The Karate Kid II begins just as the first movie ends, after the tournament. In the parking lot, Mr Miyagi and Daniel overhear Johnny being berated by Kreese for coming in second place, which escalates until Kreese puts Johnny in a choke hold. Mr Miyagi steps in and Kreese attempts to fight him, but Mr Miyagi deftly steps out of the way, leaving him to punch through the window of a nearby car instead. When Mr Miyagi has Kreese at his mercy, he honks his nose and walks off with Daniel.
After a time skip, Daniel moves in with Mr Miyagi as his mother has taken a job in Fresno for the summer. This scene also establishes that he has broken up with Ali. Shortly after, Mr Miyagi receives a letter telling him that his father is dying and he books a flight back to Okinawa to see him. It is the first time he has been home since he left as a young man. Daniel uses his college fund to go with him.
Once in Okinawa, it is revealed that Mr Miyagi’s former friend, Sato, who challenged him to a fight to the death when Mr Miyagi and his (Sato’s) fiance Yukie fell in love, still intends to follow through with this fight. His nephew, Chozen, is the primary antagonist towards Daniel in this movie. Soon after they arrive, Daniel also meets Kumiko, his love interest in this movie.
After Mr Miyagi and Daniel save Sato’s life in a typhoon and Chozen is too afraid to help, Sato calls off the fight and makes amends with Mr Miyagi. Humiliated, Chozen challenges Daniel to a fight to the death at a cultural festival, threatening Kumiko’s life if he doesn’t fight him. Daniel wins and spares Chozen, and, of course, honks his nose.
The Karate Kid III summary
Oh boy. [insert how do I even begin to explain Terry Silver picture]. Okay, let’s get into it. The Karate Kid III starts with Kreese, down on his luck, having lost all of his students after the events of the first and second movies. He goes to meet his friend and landlord, Terry Silver, who lives in the iconic Ennis house and explains that he’s lost everything and is closing up business. When he says that he’ll get him the rent when he can, Terry exclaims that he doesn’t want the rent, that he bought the property for Kreese. He hatches a revenge plan to get back at Mr Miyagi and Daniel and sends Kreese off to Tahiti. Martin Kove, who plays Kreese, had scheduling conflicts which necessitated another villain and thank all the Gods of happenstance that what we got was Terry Silver.
As Kreese is leaving for Tahiti, Mr Miyagi and Daniel are arriving back in California. When they reach Daniel’s old apartment building they find major construction underway and a neighbour explains that the complex is being remade into condos and that Daniel’s mother is in New Jersey caring for his uncle Louie. Mr Miyagi agrees to allow Daniel to stay with him. Before they leave and as they are carrying Mr Miyagi’s bonsai trees from a workshop to the truck, Daniel asks Mr Miyagi if he ever considered starting a bonsai shop. Mr Miyagi confesses that it was his dream. Daniel then uses his college fund (I know, I know, he used it to get to Okinawa — Mr Miyagi won the money back in a bet when they were there) to get a lease on a property to make this dream a reality. Mr Miyagi is reluctant at first to accept this generosity, but is incredibly touched and makes Daniel a partner in the business.
Daniel gets a letter from the All-Valley committee inviting him to defend his title and he is excited to learn that a new rule would mean he would only have to fight in the final match. Mr Miyagi is against him fighting in a tournament and convinces him not to fight. Meanwhile, Terry Silver has hired “karate’s bad boy” Mike Barnes to fight in the tournament and intimidate Daniel into signing up. He escalates until Daniel agrees to fight, but Mr Miyagi will not agree to train him.
Terry Silver, comes to visit Mr Miyagi’s house under the pretence of wanting to apologise for the actions of John Kreese, who he claims is dead and establishes trust with Daniel. Later, he offers to train him for the tournament and begins a campaign of… what can only be described as physical and psychological torture. He gets Daniel to train against a wooden dummy that makes his hands bleed and… well, watch the movie. It has to be seen to be believed. Many people ship Daniel/Terry in a dub conny D/s way and I don’t not see that, so if you’re wary of fucked up power dynamics and mind games, be aware that they are very much there.
Eventually, after Daniel punches a guy who was (unwantedly) hitting on his friend, Jessica Andrews, and breaks his nose, Daniel realises that he doesn’t like the aggressive style of karate he has been learning and doesn’t know who he is anymore. He decides to quit the tournament and tells Mr Miyagi that he’s going to tell Silver, who he believes meant well (oh Daniel…).
Back at the Cobra Kai dojo, Terry reveals his duplicity to Daniel and he, Kreese and Barnes confront him. Daniel tries to run away but is pursued by Barnes, who is then stopped by Mr Miyagi, who had followed him. Mr Miyagi beats both Terry and Kreese, who are not perturbed and say that if Daniel doesn’t fight in the tournament he’ll be fighting for the rest of his life. Mr Miyagi finally agrees to train Daniel.
At the tournament, Terry instructs Barnes to win a point and then lose it repeatedly by breaking the rules, so that Daniel is in agony by the sudden death round. It comes to sudden death and, remembering Mr Miyagi’s lessons, Daniel scores the winning point.
The Next Karate Kid… also exists
There is also a fourth movie called The Next Karate Kid, which is about Julie Pierce and Mr Miyagi, but I have not seen it. It is not necessary to see it to understand Cobra Kai as Julie has not yet appeared in the show.
The Karate Kid 2010 is another movie that exists
The Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan remake is another one that I haven’t seen personally. It is not in the same continuity as the original movies and Cobra Kai show.
Which brings us to Cobra Kai! Cobra Kai is the story of Johnny Lawrence, Daniel’s opponent from the first movie, whose life has gone down the toilet in the intervening years. He is an alcoholic and a deadbeat dad who, in the first episode, loses his job as a handyman. Where do we go from here?
Season one summary
In season one, Johnny re-opens the Cobra Kai dojo after saving his neighbour Miguel from a group of bullies (he was mostly concerned about them messing with his car, but he does get better). Daniel LaRusso, now the face and owner of a successful chain of auto dealerships, loses his entire mind about the reemergence of Cobra Kai in the Valley and this forms the core of the conflict in season one. Johnny’s son Robby, initially wanting to hurt his dad but later forming a genuine bond with Daniel, goes to work for LaRusso Auto and begins to train in Miyagi-Do karate. The season ends with the All Valley tournament. Johnny has taught his students well, but they have become aggressive and some fight dirty, even when he cautions them not to, including against Robby. Miguel wins the tournament and Robby, injured, comes in second place. The season ends with Kreese reappearing in the Cobra Kai dojo to congratulate Johnny.
Season two summary
Season two opens with Johnny and Kreese fighting in the Cobra Kai dojo. Johnny confronts Kreese about his actions towards him but Kreese brushes him off, which enrages Johnny. Kreese, however, eventually manages to worm his way into Johnny’s trust and is allowed to teach beside him in the dojo. Daniel, adamant that Cobra Kai doesn’t take over the Valley, begins to teach his daughter, Samantha, as well as Robby, and seeks more students. Sam, who was dating Miguel in season one before they broke up at the beach in a confrontation that involved Robby, begins to date Robby. Meanwhile, a new girl, Tory, joins Cobra Kai and strikes up a relationship with Miguel. After a series of events cascade, ending with Samantha drunkenly kissing Miguel at a party, the season reaches its apex with a fight in the school where Tory announces over the intercom that she’s coming for Sam. Robby and Miguel try to break up the fight, but become involved and Robby accidentally kicks Miguel over a second floor railing. Johnny, distraught, goes back to the dojo only to discover that Kreese has taken over the lease and the dojo, as he believes that Johnny has lost his way in teaching the students mercy.
Season three summary
In season three, Johnny is a drunken mess, Robby is on the run, Miguel is in a coma and Daniel’s business is on the rocks after the school fight. Daniel and Johnny briefly team up to try to find Robby, but lose patience with each other after a short while. After Robby is found at his mother’s rehab facility, Daniel calls the police and asks Robby to give himself up, which Robby, understandably, takes as a betrayal. After Johnny promises to come and see him in juvie, he stands him up to pray with Miguel’s family at the hospital and Robby’s heart hardens further against both of them. He is given a hard time by other inmates until Kreese visits him and, on his advice, he adopts the philosophy of striking first and establishes himself as someone who it is unwise to give trouble to.
After Miguel wakes up, he can’t move his legs and uses a wheelchair for a few episodes. Full disclosure, I found a lot of the portrayal of Miguel’s recovery to be ableist — nobody ever said that it was possible to live a full and happy life even if he didn’t regain his mobility, for instance, and it feels like the writers wanted him to be back to “normal” as soon as they possibly could manage it.
Sam, and the other Miyagi-Do students, train in secret before Daniel agrees to teach them again. Unfortunately, this comes after another fight which traumatises Sam and she doesn’t want anything to do with karate anymore. Her struggle with PTSD, panic attacks and flashbacks continues throughout the season.
Johnny starts a new dojo, Eagle Fang, and resists multiple attempts by Kreese to come back to Cobra Kai and embrace “strike first, strike hard, no mercy.”
After Robby leaves juvie, he asks Kreese if he can stay at the dojo, which Kreese allows.
In the climax of season three, the Cobra Kai students attack the LaRusso house, where Eagle Fang and Miyagi-Do are meeting to try and figure out how to work together.
When Johnny finds Miguel beaten at home, he goes to fight Kreese and accidentally knocks Robby unconscious. Kreese nearly gets the better of him, but Daniel arrives just in time to bust out some moves he learned earlier in the season in Okinawa (he went to Japan to save his business and took a side quest to Okinawa where he reconnected with Kumiko and Chozen, who taught him aspects of Miyagi-Do karate that Mr Miyagi had never revealed to him). It seems like Daniel is going to kill Kreese when he has him at his mercy, but then Sam and Miguel arrive and it is agreed that they will settle things at the tournament. Daniel and Johnny resolve to work together to beat Kreese. Kreese, meanwhile, is seen phoning an old friend.
Season four summary
Season four, which dropped on December 31 2021, begins with Kreese trying to convince a newly mindful and vegan Terry Silver to come back to help him with Cobra Kai. Terry refuses at first, but then remembers who he is, Simba style, and returns.
Daniel and Johnny have trouble working together and, after several stops and starts, decide to compete separately.
The All-Valley committee changes the rules so that there will be a girl’s competition alongside the boy’s competition, rather than continuing to run a co-ed tournament, with the winning dojo overall being the one with the most points between both competitions combined. This leads to a showdown between Tory and Sam and Hawk and Robby, with Tory and Hawk respectively as the victors. Cobra Kai wins the overall trophy. Irony of ironies, had Johnny and Daniel continued to work as one dojo, they would have won.
The season ends with Miguel leaving to try and find his father, Robby finding and forgiving Johnny, Terry betraying Kreese by having him framed for aggravated assault and attempted murder because he hurt his feelings and Daniel teaming up with Chozen to continue the fight against Cobra Kai.
Season 5 summary
Season five begins where the previous season left off, with Miguel arriving in Mexico to look for his father (Robby and Johnny follow soon after). He finds his father after saving his girlfriend’s son from wandering into traffic and has a pleasant dinner with him, leaving him under the impression that his mother misled him about his father’s character. Soon though, it becomes apparent that his father was exactly the man that Carmen made him out to be and Miguel manages to get away from him and arrives straight into the waiting arms of Johnny, while a jealous Robby looks on. Robby and Miguel continue to have interpersonal issues through the early part of the season until Johnny gets them to “fight it out” and they make peace with each other. When the three of them arrive back in California, Carmen lets Johnny know that her menstrual cycle is late and that she may be pregnant. This is confirmed shortly after and they are both very happy. Johnny resolves to be a better father to all his children.
Meanwhile, Daniel and Chozen have been trying to take down Terry Silver’s Cobra Kai with little success. Terry Silver has been recruiting teachers from South Korea, specifically the granddaughter of Master Kim, who taught him and Kreese after they came home from the Vietnam war, Kim Da Eun and her entourage. Daniel tracks down his old nemesis from Karate Kid III, Mike Barnes, and tries to enlist him as an ally, only for Terry Silver to burn down Barnes’ furniture shop. Terry also conspires to make Daniel look irrational and violent in the eyes of his wife Amanda at a charity event by gaslighting him and Amanda takes the kids and goes away to her mother’s home in another state. After Daniel tries to talk to Stingray (who Terry Silver assaulted in season 4 and convinced to tell the police that Kreese had been the one to assault him) and is beaten up by Terry, he goes to Johnny for help, who initially says that he has other priorities now besides the karate war (see: a new baby). To celebrate, they hire a party limo and go out drinking with Chozen, Amanda (whose cousin, Jessica Andrews from Karate Kid III, told her that, no actually, Terry Silver is a very bad man and Daniel is not being irrational) and Carmen (who is not drinking but is having a good time) and Daniel’s cousin Louie. Through one thing and another, Chozen, Daniel and Johnny get separated from the group and turn out to be abducted by Mike Barnes, furious that his life was ruined by Daniel’s reappearance. The very intoxicated trio of Mike, Johnny and Chozen decide to go and take on Terry Silver at his mansion, while Daniel is left behind. The fight at the mansion goes extremely poorly, until Johnny, upon seeing an ultrasound picture of his and Carmen’s unborn baby that falls out of his pocket, gets a second wind and turns the tide.
The teen characters, including Tory (who has a subplot involving trying to free Kreese from prison, which ends with him telling her to do what’s best for her and her feeling abandoned by him), are at the same time acting alone, trying to steal evidence that Terry Silver cheated in the All-Valley Tournament in the previous season and get jumped by the Cobra Kai students after being betrayed by one of their own (who never actually wanted to leave Cobra Kai in the first place and who wasn’t treated very nicely by the other members of Eagle Fang). Daniel arrives the dojo and ends up in a fight against Terry Silver, who has arrived straight from the fight at his mansion. Daniel wins the fight using both the elements of the quicksilver method from the third movie and a crane kick and footage is played on the TV screens in the dojo that exposes Terry’s cheating. The Cobra Kai students, disgusted, throw away their Cobra Kai merch at his feet and leave. The season ends with Terry Silver’s arrest after Stingray revises his testimony regarding his assault. As Daniel and Johnny joke that maybe he and Kreese will be cellmates, it is revealed that Kreese has escaped prison.
So that’s the canon. What about the fandom?
Fandom events and communities
cobrakaikink — a kink meme for all things Karate Kid and Cobra Kai hosted here on Dreamwidthcobra_kai_snake_pit — a largely inactive Dreamwidth group that I co-mod. I’d love to see more activity on it in 2023!The Cobra Kai Fan Fic Awards — an event hosted on Discord entering its fifth year where the fandom votes on fics from the previous year in a variety of categories. The invite link will expire in seven days, so if you are reading this after that feel free to message me and I will send you a new one. Alternately, the Tumblr blog for the awards is
But why get into Cobra Kai fandom in the first place? What does it have going for it besides the karate war and the generational trauma? Well we have pretty great ships. Here is a non-exhaustive list of some.
Mini Ship Manifestos
Carmen/Johnny, aka Jarmen: Carmen Diaz is Johnny’s student Miguel’s mother and Johnny’s love interest. The two have a sweet, understated affection for each other. Also they are both smoking hot.
Daniel/Amanda, aka Damanda: Shipping a canon married couple can seem passé in fandom circles, particularly when there’s a big m/m juggernaut in “competition” with the ship, but these two are delightful together. For me it really starts to sing in season three when Amanda gets on board with being as feral as the guys on the show.
Daniel/Johnny, aka LawRusso: The most represented ship by far on Ao3. These men have been obsessed with each other for over thirty years. We have canonical enemies-to-friends (sort of)! We just need to push them that liiiittle bit further and where better to do that than in fic?
Daniel/Amanda/Johnny, aka LawRussos: Remember what I said about fandom tending to gloss over female love interests when there was a big slash ship to attend to? Instead, why not both! But this is far from just resolving a love triangle by turning it into a triad, this thing has legs, baby! Johnny and Amanda’s dynamic brings so much to both the Daniel/Johnny and the Daniel/Amanda sides of the equation. Johnny and Amanda best friendship when??
Daniel/Kumiko, aka Damiko: Kumiko is Daniel’s love interest from the second film and they are unspeakably adorable together. TKK2 Daniel is in peak loverboy mode and it is precious as is Kumiko herself. I love Amanda with all my heart, but I desperately wish that the show had brought back Kumiko as Daniel’s wife.
Daniel/Terry, aka Silverusso: For lovers of all things dark and twisted! It’s hard to look at TKK3 and not, at some point, think… wow. I wouldn’t mind Thomas Ian Griffith intimidating me and making me feel small with his lorgness. Or. Um. Just me? Okay. But, anyway, the movie could very easily be reworked into a 50 Shades of Silver fic, and if that’s your jam then this is the ship for you.
Demetri/Eli “Hawk” Moscowitz, aka Binary Boyfriends: Demetri and Hawk, né Eli, are best friends who drift apart after Hawk joins Cobra Kai and adopts a new persona, leaving behind the “nerd shit” that they had bonded over before. But that’s maybe misleading: they remain friends until Demetri takes a stand against Cobra Kai and earns Hawk’s enmity. Gasp! Friends-to-enemies! This ship has childhood friendship, betrayal and a complex, evolving relationship. What’s not to love?
Johnny/Bobby, aka Bonny: Bobby Brown is one of Johnny’s close circle of friends from the first movie. In the show, he comes back as a pastor (not a priest, as he has to remind Johnny often. I wonder why he’s so keen to make the clarification 👀). Bobby and Johnny are tactile and loving towards each other and their easy physical affection for each other is notable and touching given how mired in toxic masculinity Johnny can be.
Johnny/Dutch: Like Bobby, Dutch is one of Johnny’s close friends from the movie. He is ride or die for his boy Johnny Lawrence and they cannot keep their hands off of each other. And that’s just the canon, babes!
Kreese/Silver, aka Cobra Husbands: Full disclosure, this is my OTP. Prior to watching The Karate Kid III I hated Kreese in a very uncomplicated way, but seeing him with someone who adored him so completely… changed me. Kreese/Silver has it all: friends bonded by war, devotion, estrangement (what happened?? I certainly don’t know, but let’s write fic about it). Whether you prefer them sweet and devoted or acting like bitter divorcees, this franchise has you covered.
Miguel/Hawk, aka Migueli: If you like friends-to-lovers you will like Miguel/Hawk. Hawk even has a nickname for Miguel, El Serpiente, and honestly what’s more coupley than that?
Miguel/Sam, aka Samguel: Another canon ship that is very sweet and wholesome. They have their ups and downs, but Sam and Miguel never stop loving each other. They have a relationship mascot, a plushie Miguel wins for Sam called Señor Octopus! Peak cute teen ship.
Robby/Miguel, aka Kiaz: Johnny’s son and Johnny’s surrogate son, the drama of it all! They are intensely jealous of each other in canon, both over love interests and, more importantly, their perceived positioning in the hierarchy of Johnny’s affections. Oh boys. Why don’t you just kiss?
Robby/Sam: Two houses, both alike in dignity. Robby and Sam are the children of the members of the rivalry central to the show and boy does that play a role! Robby also lives with the LaRussos for a spell and the ~forbidden romance~ dial goes up to eleven.
Robby/Tory, aka Keenry: Tory and Robby both have criminal records and have had to be more grown up than they ought to be from too young (Robby’s mother is an addict and Johnny is absent and Tory’s mother is on dialysis and she has had to be the breadwinner for her family) and as such they understand each other on a deeper level than many of the other characters do. Also they both deserve nice things and they could be that for each other. Another great enemies-to-friends-to-lovers ship.
Sam/Tory: Daughter of homoerotic karate rivalry rides again! Sam and Tory hate each other from their first meeting and the sparks that fly can read pretty darn ambiguous. I made a vid set to Jolene about the Tory-Sam-Miguel love triangle that, in the grand tradition of Jolene, asks the question: who are you really in love with?
A (very incomplete) rec list
Some disclaimers:
- These recs were largely crowd sourced and, as such, I have not read all of them.
- The warnings given were either reader-generated or taken from the tags/author’s notes. The lack of a warning does not mean that there is nothing that warrants one.
- I gathered these recs post-season 4 and then let the project languish until now, so more recent fics are underrepresented. Feel free to add your own recs on the first sheet of the spreadsheet!
- I originally intended to use this spreadsheet to collate a more curated reclist, but in the spirit of Getting Things Done and not letting perfection being the enemy of good enough, I’m going to just show you what I have
Without further ado, here are the recs!
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Date: 2023-01-04 04:55 pm (UTC)Thank you for the reminder that I'm behind on the latest season! Shameful that Netflix didn't just put it in my queue. ;)
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Date: 2023-01-04 06:31 pm (UTC)