Commentary: The ‘Cobra Kai’ Tournament Was Always Going To Fall Into Chaos
by Frank Martin
It’s hard to keep a show like Cobra Kai going. There’s only so much drama that can be artificially generated from high-schoolers doing karate. Eventually, even the non-karate characters got into the fighting. They tried to spice things up by having the characters go global and fight against other international dojos. The show looked like it was falling into traditional martial arts film territory. But Cobra Kai fans know that the show is built upon chaos. That is the legacy of the Cobra Kai dojo. So it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone how the Season 6 Part Two finale ended.
During the Sekai Taikai, one of the final dojos was eliminated due to some of its competitors testing positive for banned substances. Their sensei argued, but it was pointless. Cobra Kai took their spot and their captains entered the final tournament. The competition was off to a familiar start for martial arts stories, but tensions were running very high between these characters. It reached a boiling point when Robby (Tanner Buchanan) faced off against Iron Dragon’s Axel (Patrick Luwis). Others began interfering, and the tournament’s host, Gunther Braun (Carsten Norgaard), tried to break it up. Unfortunately, the banned sensei sucker punched him, thus triggering an all-out brawl.
That shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. It’s not the first time Cobra Kai had a fight like this. And with a few more episodes left, there’s a possibility it’s not the last. A huge theme of the show is that the Cobra Kai way itself thrives on chaos. The mentality of striking first and showing no mercy isn’t about peace, order, and balance. It’s about violence. So despite setting up a very interesting tournament with a lot of potential, it was always going to devolve into anarchy as that’s what the show does best.
Cobra Kai is now streaming on Netflix.