As of the writing of this mytake, Cobra Kai season 5 has been released for less than 1 month in my opinion it was the best season yet. However, this got me thinking about other franchises. I'm a nerd with many other franchises and Cobra Kai is pretty much the only show that has managed to bring back a classic franchise and not only do it well but do it spectacularly!
We've seen countless franchise revivals such as the Dragon Ball franchise, the star wars franchise, the DC/Marvel franchises, Star Trek franchise and many more but the results seem to be a mixed bag at the best of times and out-right trash at the worst.
So it got me thinking is the karate kid franchise merely lucky? Or are there reasons as to why this franchise is a rare exception? I believe it's the latter and here are 5 reasons why:
WARNING: This will contain spoilers of multiple franchises....you have been warned.
1. Cobra Kai doesn't force everyone to adopt their politics.
While it is true that the Cobra Kai series does take some obvious jabs at leftist politics it does so in a way that is absolutely brilliant. It doesn't constantly hammer you over the head with how all people need to be right-wing conservatives or anything like that. Johnny does have some views that are clearly not in step with the current left and in some cases he rightly calls out some leftist nonsense.
At the same time he is also a man who barely learned how to operate a laptop so you are allowed to make up your own mind about him. Is he just a "Boomer" whose out of touch or is he a man who is from a time where there was more "Common sense" or is it a little of both?
It also doesn't make every character hold the same views as Johnny Lawrence, Miguel, Demetry and Daniel don't have all the same beliefs but that's okay. By Season 5 they are all on the same team working for a common goal and for good. They aren't perfect but that's okay you don't have to be perfect to make a difference or be a great character.
By contrast:
The "Arrow verse" for example, which has constant remakes and constant vilification of people on the right in favor of our "Clearly enlightened" heroes on the left. In the final episode of the supergirl series Alex even said to her opponent "No touching without consent". Really? A supervillain is attacking you and that's you're response?
The constant ham-fisted attempts to force immigration views, BLM Views, Gay marriage views and transgender views all are so overt that there really is not anyroom for debate.
Let's also not forget about the fact that Supergirl is constantly the one to one-up Superman despite having less experience than him simply for the sake of feminism.
Of course Star Trek Discovery (Otherwise known as STD) does similar things so much so that by season 3 and 4 there are no regular straight white male characters lol. They are either black, hispanic, transgender or gay or aliens. They really don't want to get any tickets from the progressive police lol.
2. The writers of Cobra Kai actually care about continuity.
Not only do the writers care about the continuity of the past movies by constantly remembering it and referencing it with clips from the Old Movies but they have quite a keen eye of detail for remembering their own continuity. They not only remember major details (I.E. Hawk beating Robby, Kenny getting brutally beaten by Robby) but they even remember minor details. Mitch a.k.a. penis-breath never really wanted to leave Cobra Kai and only left because he was kicked out by Kreese. Which was part of the reason why he went back to Cobra Kai in the first place in Episode 10 of Season 5.
They even remember that everyone who Kyler has bullied kicked his ass by that time, Except Demetry who a few minutes later got his wish!
Once again: The Star Trek writers prove that they don't care not just by their actions but with their words.
In this interview:
He basically doesn't even care:
So much so that he actually made a Spore drive for a ship in the 23rd century that can warp someone ALL over the place instantly. Man it's a shame Voyager couldn't have made one of those.
Not only does he just not care about previous continuity he doesn't think about the implications of his own continuity.
Star Trek Discovery has a spore drive.....okay great. You'd think that the other ships 900 years later in Season 3 would have something similar if not even better than something nearly a thousand years old, but no. They don't instead if Discovery hadn't come then the federation would never have had a chance of being reformed.
It's an idiotic and ridiculous excuse so that we can get our main cast (Most of whom I can't even remember the names of because most of them are sadly forgettable), and of course Michael Burnham to be the heroes.
3. The Cobra Kai series knows the difference between an homage and a rip-off
The Cobra Kai series makes constant homages to things, in and out of universe that feel so organic and natural that it's insane. For example in season 2 Johnny has all of his Cobra Kai buddies around him when Tommy is on the verge of death. (Which also was true of Bob Garrison, the actor at the time). There are musical numbers just like they played in the KK1 but then it culminates in Tommy finally passing away and being put in a Body Bag (A reference to his famous one liner from Daniel and Johnny's fight).
On top of that Johnny's detour later serves the purpose of the story because it's then that not only does Kreese succeed in turning the students against Johnny but also provides the opportunity for Kreese to acquire the dojo from the land-lord.
In contrast the Dragon Ball franchise has countless examples of clear homage attempts that fail.
Vegeta's Final Explosion against Toppo in the tournament of power is a prime example of something not working as well as it did before. Vegeta's sacrifice against Buu was a powerful moment for him and it showed his character fighting for something other than himself. We already know he's grown past that in Super.
Not only that but Vegeta blows himself up after beating Toppo to a pulp with his bare hands. Why would he exhaust himself like that and ruin himself for the inevitable fight against Jiren? It's dumb.
As good as the latest DB Super: Super Hero movie was in my opinion it still couldn't resist making an homage to Cell Games Gohan by literally having a palet swap with "Beast Gohan" and of course having the same red line cross Gohan that did when SSJ2 was first seen.
Of course the Star Trek Franchise has.....Michael Burnham need I say more? Why not. Her constant monologues at the beginning of each episode are attempts to recreate picard's speeches and the captain's logs but my goodness they make me want to break my tv every time I heard one.
4. The Karate Kid franchise actually knows how to do Prequals.
While the karate kid franchise has not (Yet) had a full-on prequal series or movie it has in it's run shown that they have the necessary understanding of what it takes to make one. For example Johnny Lawrence is shown multiple times to be the victim of bullying to his step-father, losing his father at a very young age and being chastised for crying about something that happened to his mother by sensei Kreese. All in all while the show never attempts to justify why Johnny acted the way he did, it's more understandable why Johnny turned out the way he did for so long.
The same thing with Kreese we see how he was locked away in prison and forced to fight his friends to the death over a snake pit. We see how he slowly went from a man who was a hero who would stand up for betty when she was being assaulted to someone who is broken over his war experiences. Kreese who was a war hero who'd been through hell was welcomed home to a bunch of people calling him a killer and as he said to Terry Silver people needed to learn respect. He managed to get respect until he finally lost it after 1984.
Terry Silver was also saved by John Kreese in the war which helps us to better understand why (At least partially) he's willing to go through such lengths to terrorize a teenager in KK3.
The Star Trek franchise fails once again......
Season 2 of discovery in addition to keeping the aforementioned spore-drive. Decide to re-introduce Section 31, who of course in contrast to their Deep Space 9 counterparts are overt, out in the open and they even allow Emperor Georgou (An evil despotic emperor) to be part of their organization, because that will end well.
The Star Trek prequals failed so badly that they decided to take it to the future in season 3, which was in improvement but it still suffered from it's own issues.
5. Cobra Kai takes it's characters in NEW directions.
Countless amounts of development has happened in this show, alliances are always changing, shifting and in some cases reforming. Prime examples of character development are of course Johnny Lawrence, he goes from almost a copy of who he was back in the 80s to a more nuanced person who still has a hilarious and entertaining personality but realizes that Miguel was going down a bad direction because of him in season 1. He breaks ties with Kreese he goes through a journey to try and ally himself with Daniel ultimately learning to find common ground and by the time the end of season 4 comes around he has settled his rivalry once and for all.
Johnny learned how to be not just a better father but also a better father figure in the case of miguel. He ironically thought that being a dad with a baby would make him look lame but the inspiration to fight on because of his child kicked him into over-drive in his fight against the senseis in the last episode of season 5, making him more badass than ever!
Daniel of course had similar traits of his KK self while trying to be a sensei himself in the first few seasons.
Additionally his season 4 and season 5 arc are absolutely amazing. Daniel followed Mr. Miyagi's teachings to the letter as though it was his religion but ironically that isn't what Mr. Miyagi had in mind (Hence the clip of a Bonzai growing into it's own). Which was a story that was waiting to be told. He realizes that in season 4 that he could no longer rely solely on the teachings of Miyagi and finally realizes it when Hawk is pressed by Robby and tells him to use his only option: His superior knowledge of Cobra Kai's karate.
Daniel realizes that Johnny's teachings are needed to win the fight. Which comes and is shown in season 5 while all of the Miyagi fangs are training together. It finally culminates in Daniel using the techniques of Terry Silver against him to defeat him in a fight while also culminating in the Crane Kick taught by Miyagi. Terry Silver is defeated, shown to have been a cheater and because of this his students walk out.
The Dragon Ball franchise prefers to constantly re-hash the past....
While there are some new directions in Vegeta's character in the manga....as well as a few minor characters the Dragon Ball franchise constantly prefers to endlessly reference the past for gags
Vegeta: He's always mad at Goku obsessed with surpassing him (Even though the Buu Saga was supposed to be the end of all that). He hates the Fusion Dance, he also hates Fusing in general to the point where he nearly declines Potara Fusion again.
Goku: He's basically a meme now, he's stupid and it's supposed to be funny. He doesn't know what a kiss is, he doesn't know what meditation is. He's too stupid to figure out that Beerus is inside of a Monaka Costume and of course he always let's his guard down.
Yamcha: He's a loser and a meme too, he sucks at everything and he nearly got killed in the same pose of the infamous Saibamen death.
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My list is not meant to be exhaustive by any means but it is clear that the Miyagi verse is in good hands.
Despite the fact that I have said some things in particular about the CW network, Star Trek and DB franchises I will admit that the latest projects of said franchises are at least somewhat of an improvement.
The DB Super: Super Hero movie is a breath of fresh air in many ways despite the overt rip offs to Cell Games Gohan in place.
Star Trek: Strange new worlds while it isn't at the level of the other shows of legacy trek, is at least noticeably better in my view than STD.
Also the CW Network's show Superman and lois: While not perfect is infinitely better than Supergirl at least in my view.
I do hope that the franchises continue to get better but the best way to do that is to look to the Karate Kid Universe otherwise they're gonna start sucking really bad again.
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