Daniel Larusso - Blog Posts

Close eye. Trust. Concentrate. Think: only tree. Make a perfect picture down to last pine needle. Wipe your mind clean. Everything but tree. Nothing exists whole world. Only tree.

I think Anthony also counts in this. Kenny could've easily just made his revenge about exposing Anthony for the bully he was or something, but he decided to give Anthony a year of pain. Talk about obsession.

Terry also specifically took a liking to Kenny without knowing about his history with Anthony. I think he can just sense it, you know?

Kwon also approached Sam unwarranted that one time. He was drunk, but people are the most honest when drunk.

I think it gets stronger the more a LaRusso ages.

Terry to Axel, "Only one of us is allowed to be obsessed with a LaRusso, and as your elder that's me."

lol

Terry Silver through time

Robby Season 4-5 rewrite

I'm honestly so peeved that they didn't let Robby win a tournament at least once. In season 4, Miguel was going to crack his hip anyways, so Robby should've won that fight with Hawk. And then have Sam win for Miyagi-do.

I'm mainly saying this because Hawk had been pissing me off. He's gotten away with being a bully, and was still a bully even when he was with Miyagi-do. He saw Kenny backing away from the 2 boys at the movie night (forgot their names), and still assumed Kenny was up to something. He still went out of way to try to intimidate Kenny. I was so satisfied when Kenny gave him the quicksilver method.

Sorry, I'm getting off track. Robby should've won at least once, and in his match with Hawk. Even though it's cliche, it would've been a fun little 'balance' thing. Robby and Sam, once lovers, are on opposite sides which. The tournament ends in a tie.

And then have him discover it was rigged. Afterwards, Robby remains in Cobra Kai so that he can watch over Kenny, but Silver can smell that Robby is becoming disillusioned. This not only puts Robby on thinner ice, but sets up some interesting dialogue between him and Silver. Maybe also Daniel. Robby was Miyagi-do first, so it's easier for him to break out of control.

Robby tries to juggle his home life with his Cobra Kai life. Accepting Miguel as his stepbrother, but must deal with the constant questioning of his fellow Cobras. "You two are cool now?"

Tory can still do her John Kreese side quest depending on whether Robby tells her about Terry. Knowing how loyal she is to Cobra Kai, and how far she's willing to go, there's no telling if she'll be on his side.

Terry Silver + Daniel theory (essay)

(The only reason I actually watched Cobra Kai was for Terry Silver and the other chaos)

I believe Terry Silver is the real reason Daniel wanted Cobra Kai's extinction. Daniel was bullied by Johnny, but being bullied was nothing compared to what Terry did to him.

Daniel was being stalked, harassed and assaulted. To learn that Terry was the mastermind behind all of it must've been very frightening for him. From the very beginning, Terry's character is rooted in deception. Terry introduces himself as Kreese's old friend, but also portrays himself as someone Daniel can trust. He 'saves' Daniel from Mike Barnes. Meanwhile, he's breaking and entering into Mr Miyagi's home (while Daniel and Miyagi are there, that's bold), and shows up at the club while Daniel was hanging out with Jessica.

When Daniel tells Terry that he no longer wants any lessons once he realises what it's doing to him, Terry becomes chillingly cold. Daniel saw glimpses of this Terry during their training together, but now the mask has completely gone off. I cannot imagine how terrified Daniel must've felt.

Let's add Mike Barnes to the equation. Imagine some random boy shows up at your home and the store you're trying to build, vadalising property with his lackies, and beating you and your friend up, threatening you. You find out that your mentor and this boy were working with each other this entire time. To make things worse, you've been told that someone died. And then that person shows up and jump scares you.

It's pretty terrifying when you think about it.

Yes, Daniel was bullied by Johnny Lawrence, and it was bad. Being bullied isn't something people can easily move on from, especially with the different kinds of bullying people have experienced (physical, verbal ect.) On the other hand, being stalked is the sort of thing that makes you look over your shoulder for the rest of your life. Being deceived gives you trust issues. Daniel's problem wasn't Johnny Lawrence, it was Cobra Kai. Daniel found out that the reason Johnny was the way he was was because of Kreese. Not to mention, Kreese strangled Johnny in a fit of rage and smacked another student.

Going back to the 3rd film, Cobra Kai's teachings turned Daniel into someone he wasn't. Before Daniel was trained by Mr Miyagi he was a relatively decent person. Yes, he had a bad temper, but only because he was being provoked into behaving like that. We saw in the first film that Daniel's idea of revenge was sprinkling some water onto Johnny, which was nothing compared to what Johnny and his friends did to Daniel. When Daniel punched that guy at the club he immediately felt terrible, and tried to do the right thing. He went out of his way to call the police station so that he could apologise to the guy. He didn't enjoy what he did, he doesn't enjoy harming other people. Daniel's a hothead, but he's not a monster.

Fast forward to years later, and we see why Cobra Kai is bad. We saw it with Miguel. Yes, it teaches you confidence and what not, but it also teaches you to embrace your bad traits. With Johnny as the teacher it's not so bad, but when Kreese comes into the picture it's 10x worse. Hawk vandalised Miyagi-do. Tory started the school fight. They came to the LaRusso house to fight everyone there. (I haven't gotten over the fact that they threw a kid through a window).

Cobra Kai teaches you to become a bad person.

Terry Silver makes his return. The expression on Daniel's face isn't the same one he had when he re-meets Johnny. Terry gives Daniel a sincere apology, but Daniel rejects it. First of all, Terry shows up with Kreese, with the same hairstyle he had years ago. The fact that he showed up at all while there's a karate tournament that Daniel is involved in couldn't mean anything good.

The way Terry reacts to the rejection is concerning. It was as if he was entitled to it. If not entitled, then he expected his apology to be accepted. Like Mike's apology. Chozen's apology. Johnny's apology?

I firmly believe Daniel's rejection was the motive behind Terry's actions. Daniel tried to end Cobra Kai, only for Terry to come along and try to turn it into his legacy. Terry shows up to charity events that Daniel is involved in, and tries to break his marriage bit by bit.

Terry is obsessed with Daniel.

Both as a mentor and potentially something else. We know that Terry is a very capable mentor, as we've seen with his relationship with Kenny. It's kind of hinted that Terry himself was bullied, and we see glimpses of this in the war flashbacks. He's called 'Twig', and he didn't like that name. Mean nicknames are a version of name calling if you ask me.

Terry probably saw himself in Daniel, and felt like he could've shared a connection with Daniel were it not for the whole revenge thing. "There was always a little Cobra Kai in you." Whether he was correct doesn't matter, but the fact that he said it does.

Cobra Kai's philosophy is rooted in its origins. Master Kim used it to defend himself from Japanese soldiers during ww2. Knowing what the Japanese did during those times, I can see why he developed the whole "Strike first. Strike hard. No mercy."

Unlike Miyagi-do, which preaches inner peace and being a better version of yourself to defend yourself and others, Cobra Kai is the opposite. They turn your weakness (or gets rid of) into a weapon for destruction. To harm others before they can think of harming you. To intimidate other people so that they can never be comfortable. Cobra Kai is rooted in suffering. It's rooted in being angry at the world. The bullied becoming the bully.

Weakness is not allowed.

We saw this with Kenny. He went to Cobra Kai, and Kreese was anything but welcoming. Kenny had to prove himself before he could be trained. Even Robby was a little doubtful. Kenny is a mirror to Daniel. Terry's 'second chance'. Kenny wanted to learn self defense, but that turned into getting his lick back. Making Anthony's life a living hell. That could've become Daniel if it weren't for Miyagi and the fact that Daniel didn't enjoy hurting people.

I think that's what made Terry's mentorship with Kenny special. Kenny gave into the darkness, but Daniel rejected it. Daniel is the puppet who broke free.

I believe that's why Terry wanted (expected) his apology to be accepted. It not only showed that he became 'better', but it meant he still had some control over Daniel. After so many years (decades), Terry still refers to Daniel as 'Danny boy'. It implies that he still thinks he can easily access Daniel, or still shares an 'intimate' relationship even though they haven't seen each other for decades.

Terry was a competent teacher. If you remove the Cobra Kai cruelty and brainwashing, I think he would've been great. Yes, he came to the All Valley to become a sensei once again, but we all know he returned for the love of the game (Daniel). As stated before, Terry got upset from the fact that Daniel was forgiving everyone but him. Whenever he saw Daniel with anyone he would stare in rage. He was always pleased to show up unannounced to surprise Daniel.

We all know he hasn't changed, but going out of your way to wreak havoc just because someone rejected your apology is crazy work.

Miyagi-Do Theory

I theorise that a lot of Mr Miyagi's teachings revolve around his own experiences, or are fuelled by them. I think that the tradition of passing it from father to son had to do with a father wanting to protect his son from the horrors of the world. I believe each son (and daughter?) experienced some kind of hardship, and learned from it. Yes, their father probably preached to them, but they didn't understand what was being preached until they went through it themselves.

The Miyagi-Do way is tied to living and learning. It's why the training process is doing basic everyday chores as a routine, instead of outright practising moves from the first jump. It is why peace and balance is so important to them.

I think rebellion plays a role in this as well. In the 3rd film, Daniel is being harassed and assaulted by Mike Barnes, so he wants to be retrained. Mr Miyagi is against it, so Daniel rebels against him and trains with Silver. Mr Miyagi forgives Daniel and then agrees to retrain him.

Mr Miyagi was against the tournament, but gave in once he saw for himself how severe Daniel's situation was. I'm pretty sure he had his suspicions, and went to the dojo to investigate for himself.

I think what happened here is that Mr Miyagi could see where this was going. Following the Sekai Taikai storyline, he probably met plenty of competitors like Mike Barnes in his time. I believe that's why he was against using karate for tournaments. There's no point wasting your life away competing in a sport that you will always look over your shoulder for. Once you lose after getting so close to the top, you will begin to lose yourself. That almost happened with Mike.

If we're really going to be real about it, we should address that he killed his opponent. Going back to the fight with Sam and Tory for the captain spot, Daniel rightfully stops the fight whereas Johnny says it should've continued because it was what Tory 'needed'. Anyone with a brain should know that what Johnny said wasn't correct.

Grief does not belong in competition. Mr Miyagi lost his wife and son during his enlistment. He left Okinawa, was fighting for his life in a war, and lost his wife and child. What does he do? Goes to the deep end. After becoming a thief, he might as well get into fights, right? Joined the Sekai Taikai, and look how that ended? All that frustration and anger he had at the world ended with someone's death.

I headcanon that this event was a turning point to him turning back to his ancestral teachings.

The other side of Miyagi-do is rooted in rebellion.

Rebellion can come in all kinds of ways. It can be extreme, or even the small stuff. Mr Miyagi told Daniel that one day he would make his own karate. This gives the idea that each Miyagi son made it adaptable to fit themselves. Yes, they all have the same lesson, but how they use it will be different.

One example that I will bring up is that the Capoeira we have now is different to one that was created centuries ago. It is a martial art from Congo that the Brazilian slaves had to disguise as dancing. Break dancing was inspired by Capoeira. Like a language, it changes over time.

Mr Miyagi trained Daniel and Julie Pierce even though neither of them were his children (biologically). Thing is, Miyagi-do wasn't supposed to be taught to anyone outside the family, maybe not even to women (considering how sexist things were back then). Mr Miyagi requested his father make an exception for Sato. Sato went on to teach it to Chozen.

Thus, the balance of Miyagi-do. Peace and rebellion. Going against conformity, tradition, and living a life of learning. Yeah, that's all I got for this essay.

I love how Terry didn't look the least bit offended when Kenny flipped the bird at him.

A part of me likes to believe he sort of saw Kenny as a surrogate son, or at least could've been. I always saw Terry as Kenny's Miyagi, and I can picture Kenny (when Dallas was still small) following Terry around. Terry (though manipulative) is more soft and sympathetic than Kreese was. Terry was probably the 'nicer' one.

Yes, Robby trained Kenny most of the time with the addition of Tory, but I'm pretty sure he was more of a brotherly figure. Terry had the mentor title because not only was he much older, but he could teach things Robby didn't know.

Like, Daniel was someone to torment, whereas Kenny's mentorship was genuine. There was a bond forming between them. Edit: Kenny and Daniel both have big brown eyes. Makes me wonder, if Daniel wasn't an enemy, would Terry have treated Daniel like he treated Kenny? Even with the coke in his system?

When Kenny flips the bird it's like seeing your child be rebellious, and while you could get mad, it's also adorable. No matter what, you'll remember them for the little kid they once were. Regardless of whether or not their anger is valid, that's your little boy/girl.

He didn't look disappointed or angered, it was more like a 'well, damn'.

Daniel was never the 'Real' villain

I posted this on a YouTube comment section, but here.

Bro, Ali did not want to talk to Johnny, and Johnny was pushing it. He was being hella aggressive about it, Daniel was just returning his energy. The worst Daniel did was spray some water on Johnny, AFTER Johnny and the other Cobra kids shoved Daniel down a hill on his scooter, just because Daniel wanted to learn self defence after he realised he's attending school with the same people who humiliated him and beat him up. Guess what, they humiliated him again at the football tryouts thing, and Daniel wasn't even doing anything to them. As the movie goes on it becomes less about Ali, and more about Daniel, because it's clear the Cobra's enjoy bothering Daniel. I know Daniel isn't perfect, sometimes antagonising them, but only verbal and nothing too excessive, like pushing them down a hill in the middle of the night.I personally think Cobra Kai is an out of character take on the Karate Kid series. They made Johnny an idiot, even though we know from the first Karate Kid film that he's pretty intelligent. Miyagi was also a father figure to Daniel, but they over did it in Cobra Kai. Kreese and Terry Silver are the real villains, two grown adults who couldn't get over a Karate tournament.

They legit gave Daniel trust issues with the Terry thing. Also, didn't Terry break into the Miyagi house?

KK2 Chozen Analysis

I'm not gonna say anything that has already (probably) been said, and I'm just going to make some quick points.

In Karate Kid 2 Chozen talks about honour and so on, and how he needs to reclaim it. Now I've read some opinions on Chozen where people have demonised his actions (for good reason), but I got the impression that they didn't understand him. What I mean by this is that Chozen's culture and perception of honour is different from ours (westerners). He comes from a place where Senppuku used to be a thing, so when Chozen is talking about his honour and stuff... it feels like a double edged sword when we, the audience, judge his character.

To make things technical or complicated depending on your opinion, Senppuku is the act of deleting one-self in real life, and Samurais would do it to avoid dishonouring themselves. If a Samurai did not commit Senppuku then they would be labelled a Ronin which wasn't good. Being a Ronin was a great dishonour, and a worse life than death. There's also Jigai, the female version of Senppuku, though I'm not sure why it was done.

In the Yakuza there's a thing called Yubitsume, where a member would cut off one of their fingers as an apology. Yakuza, as most of you know, still exists today. And there's evidence that members in the 80's and onwards have done this ritual. So with that being said, honour is a touchy subject regarding Chozen and not something that can be easily spoken on as a western audience.

The slight issue in this argument is that Okinawa and Japan are two different places. Okinawa, while a part of Japan is not in Japan. It's an island located between Taiwan and Japan. This makes me believe that how honour is perceived and practised in Okinawa is much different, in the sense that it may have been very important even when Japan banned certain practice before the 50's.

To be fair, I don't know how many teachings of honour were drilled into him, nor do I know when people stopped prioritising it. But just something I wanted to touch on.

Analysis 2:

In the final showdown between Chozen and Daniel I always saw it as a severe thing for Daniel. Not just because they're fighting to the death, but because Chozen is wearing black and yellow, which is something I always deemed to be a Cobra Kai colour before the Cobra Kai show came out and made it red. The only difference between Johnny and Chozen's karate gi is that Chozen has more yellow to his. Chozen's gi even makes him look like he's imitating a snake judging by the patterns, and I've always wondered if this was intentional by the director or whoever designed it.

The diamonds made me think of scales. So when Daniel is going up against him it feels like Johnny Lawrence all over again, just much worse. There's no cheering crowd, and there's no rules.

Before I watched Karate Kid 2 or found out what the plot was I saw this picture of Chozen and thought it was Daniel vs another Cobra Kai member. And then I watched the movie only to be genuinely surprised that wasn't the case. (I was 13-14, but still)