No Mercy -The Official 2009 Cobra Kai Poll

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6Lq3THQFwA&feature=related

The Perfect Weapon 2

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I love Cobra Kai unreservedly

i do like that they don't sand away who Johnny is in his redemption arc, but I've learned about making pronouncements about the show after I claimed I identified as a kid w/ Eli and then found out he becomes an antagonist later lol.

also major lols at roundhouse kicking boba tea

I've been having this conversation a lot with people. "I know this show should be garbage, but... it's got heart!"

i'm also a sucker for a universe in which All-Valley Karate Tournaments define one's stature in life.

Miguel's reluctance to spar with a female partner is a wee bit weird as that's regularly done in martial arts classes (I sparred with many females in tae kwon do), but the not-weird part of his objection is THEY'RE NOT USING PADS OF ANY KIND! Jesus christ, that insurance is gonna be expensive lol....

every Executive that Johnny's ex-wife brings home looks like they were straight out of American Psycho

this is a violent-assed high school

also no teachers anywhere to break fights up

There is that one moment where the teacher's like "they don't pay me enough for this!"

my teacher friend actually just told me they don't let them break fights up anymore and that she got in trouble for helping a girl who was getting wailed on one day.

guessing for liability/insurance/lawsuit purposes. I remember once, there was a troubled bully who would occasionally have fits of anger in which he ran around the kickball field just punching kids. it was the most ridiculous thing ever - kids running around screaming, not playing kickball, while he just grabbed the nearest one, and hit them.

and then he runs into this brick wall and falls backwards - our PE coach knocked him on his ass to stop him. didn't hit him or anything, just stopped his momentum.

this was FIFTH GRADE.

noooooo Miguel don't listen to Johnny

lol love the idea that ten minutes of karate = suddenly being able to use it in fights. I took Tae Kwon Do for a year and probably woulda been lucky to land a punch.

god i love this show

just got to the first kiss. I am glad they don't do "big, cliffhanger" style plot developments (so far). like I thought Miguel was going to try and kiss his date and she'd slap him and he'd spend two episodes trying to win her back, like most other shows, and it doesn't happen at all.

I sometimes hate the feel of shows where you feel like there's always a cobra waiting to strike (sry)

lol @ the sheer number of karate fights that break out around town.

this series is leaning into the martial arts film tropes than the films did. the movies had some of it, with the 'evil sensei' being present throughout martial arts cinema, but this ups the ante with warring schools who aren't just literally battling, but battling for supremacy as to whose form of the martial arts is superior/more pure. granted, wrong country and wrong martial art, but similar to Shaolin vs Wu-Tang, or even Fists of Fury, though I hope nobody's master winds up dead.

viewed through that lens....this series is unbeatable!

that was ....one really violent finale.

i was actually pretty impressed with the camera-work and choreography in that one

yeah, it was pretty impressive! and then...heartbreaking.

but I know the staircases were Chekhov's staircases as soon as I saw people running up them

haha, of course

I like the patent ridiculousness of it, which is again shows it's leaning into popular martial arts cinema tropes.

Daniel took forever to get good, he was still getting beat up after he started training, and even in the tourney, it seemed clear Miyagi was having to do what you do with a journeyman quarterback - play to his strengths, just be the best in a three point fight, not necessarily be a better fighter. (then of course by the second one he was fully developed).

here, people are doing ridiculous flips, sweeps, etc, things you might take years to perfect, just a few months after learning them....not like your average wuxia/kung-fu film where an experienced master somehow imparts everything he knows to a student in 6 months.

even cool that they made it clear Daniel was also very responsible for what transpired for he too created the "us vs them" mentality with his students despite promoting that karate was for self-defense only. also enjoy how every fuckin' moment of levity between the two beleagured senseis is almost immediately followed by something that breaks their truce again.

there's a special delight in watching a martial arts show and knowing that if you see a cafeteria, house party, or the first day of school that a badass fight scene is incoming

haha yes. my mind starts to wander about what i hope is used as a weapon.

this will probably inspire me to dig back through HK cinema now, so off to the martial arts movie thread I go!

Tommy died IRL too not long after shooting his cameo :(

Well now I feel bad for chuckling that Tommy went out in a bodybag

haha

i mean, it's not like it happened in the last ten minutes, i think you're ok

The fact that they did that was a hilariously grim joke, since that line has gotta be what he's best known for

Glad to see that other people are getting onboard so I no longer have to evangelize into the void. It clearly should've been on Netflix all along.

this show makes me incredibly anxious that it's going to turn into Battle Royale

ha, can only dream of that! i just hope Aisha makes it back for Season 4

I'm not sure how I've have responded -- if I remembered -- ten years ago if I'd said, "The actors playing Johnny and Kreese are more expressive and surprising than Ralph Macchio."

This show should have ended 3 years ago. It's so bad now

yeah, probably. still, i'm trapped into watching this through to the end