As many know, Season 4 of “Cobra Kai” dropped on New Year’s Eve.

My wife and I decided to wait before we delved into the new season. We took our time, watching the entire series in three nights. What a delight! Having previously written about this series, I couldn’t wait to write about Season 4!

There are so many themes to dig into. The shifting alliances, the numerous references to the 1980s, martial arts philosophies, loyalties, redemption, idealism vs. pragmatism, and flexibility vs. rigidity are themes that ran through this season.

For this post, I will focus on flexibility vs rigidity and tribalism.

Flexibility vs. Rigidity

I enjoyed this theme playing out during the season. Daniel LaRusso refused to consider any martial approach other than Miyagi-Do through much of the season. This rigidity caused tensions between himself and his daughter, Samantha. In his mind, Miyagi-Do was the only way to beat Cobra Kai. While Johnny Lawrence exhibited some rigidity, he appears to have been more open-minded than LaRusso in dealing with Cobra Kai. However, he did agree to train briefly in Miyagi-Do under LaRusso.

There was also a generational divide as well. Like Robby, Samantha, and Hawk, the younger generation was willing to incorporate Miyagi-Do and the Eagle Fang approach into their fighting styles. As Robby said to LaRusso, “Whatever works.” YEESSSS!!!

In contrast, the older generation was less flexible concerning allowing their students to find their fighting style. I think that LaRusso was the most rigid of this generation. On the other hand, Johnny Lawrence, John Kreese, and Terry Silver were more willing to employ the “whatever works” approach. However, Kreese and Silver were more ruthless and were ready to go further, using shady and unethical means to achieve their ends.

I have seen this in the martial arts as well as elsewhere.

A good example is what I witnessed while attending the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts, from 1970 to 1974.

Clarke School was, at that time, an “oral” school for the deaf. Students at Clarke ranged from the profoundly deaf to those who were “hard of hearing.” The “oral” approach heavily emphasized speech therapy and lipreading. Clarke ardently believed that all students, even the profoundly deaf, could be taught to speak. Sign language was strictly verboten. On the issue of sign language, they were pretty inflexible and often punished students who were caught signing.

As an 8-year-old, I remember thinking, “Come on, man, my deaf friends will end up using sign language anyway. So what’s the point of punishing them for what comes naturally?“

In other words, “Let them do their own freaking thing!“

I resented the rigidity on the signing issue, more for my friends than for myself. As a young boy, it was easy to see that everyone was different, depending on their hearing loss. The idea of punishing someone for deviating from the oral method was appalling. I was caught a few times using hand gestures/crude sign language when communicating with my deaf friends and had to face the consequences. Heck, I once had to eat soap as punishment.

I suppose that every individual should find their way, which has its roots in my experiences at Clarke School and extends to martial arts.

Side note: I attended a reunion at Clarke School in 2014 to attend their annual graduation ceremony. I was amazed that their attitude toward sign language had changed entirely. One teacher that I knew back in the 1970s was even signing. The cultural change blew me away and, frankly, I was happy to see that.

Back to Cobra Kai, I empathized with those who adopted the “whatever works” approach, such as Robbie, Samantha, Hawk, and to a lesser extent, Kreese and Silver. Johnny Lawrence exhibited some flexibility, although he chafed at the defensive nature of Miyagi-Do. The most rigid of them all was LaRusso, although he did relent in the last episode. Whether that is a permanent change or a one-off dictated by the circumstances remains to be seen. I guess that we’ll find out when Season 5 comes out!

Tribalism

Going into this season, we knew that there were three martial tribes: Cobra Kai, Miyagi-Do, and Eagle Fang.

Side note: Kudos to the writers for coming up with “Eagle Fang!” My god, that fits Johnny Lawrence’s mindset so well, doesn’t it?

Let’s return to the original Karate Kid movie and consider the backdrop. In many ways, it had a simple theme: good vs. evil, Cobra Kai vs. Miyagi-Do. Kreese vs. Miyagi, Daniel LaRusso squaring off against Johnny Lawrence. The movie’s binary nature reflected the world when it was released.

In 1984, the world was binary, split between the Soviet Union and the United States. Mikhail Gorbachev was not yet the leader of the Soviet Union. Konstantin Chernenko, an old apparatchik, led the Soviet Union, while Ronald Reagan was the President of the United States. Both nations had massive nuclear missiles aimed at each other. Europe was divided in half between NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

Rocky IV would be released a year later and captured the world’s bipolarity.

If you are not able to view the video, click here.

Now fast-forward to the most recent “Cobra Kai” season. We have three different martial groups: Cobra Kai, Miyagi-Do, and Eagle Fang.

Several students have shifted between these different groups. Some have been able to retain friendships no matter what dojo they were in. See how Hawk and Miguel shook hands before their bout in the semi-finals of the All-Valley Tournament.

Spoiler alert: Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang joined together to fight Cobra Kai but then had a falling out over differences in training philosophies. Then, they seemingly joined again during Samantha’s bout against Tory in the All Valley Women’s Final.

Cobra Kai reflects the messy multi-polar world that we are now in. Brexit. The USA not being as close to Europe as in the past. China seemingly rising to superpower status taking over Hong Kong and threatening Taiwan. Russia attempting to return to their glory days. There are hints of an alliance of convenience between Russia and China. Then there are the shifting alliances in the Middle East. Who can keep track of all this? Zooming out, the world seems more Hobbesian than ever before.

Back to Cobra Kai. The series ended with a short sequence with LaRusso at Miyagi’s grave, joined by former nemesis Chozen. That raises the question of where Chozen will fit in with the Cobra Kai universe and the various alliances. Imagine the combustible mix of Kreese, Silver, Lawrence, LaRusso and Chozen. Methinks that there will be plenty of fireworks in Season 5!

Season 4 of Cobra Kai captures the messy nature of today’s multipolar world and shifting allegiances very well. I bet that Season 5 will further delves into this theme.

Or am I overanalyzing a hugely entertaining series?!

If you don’t like this post, I will sweep your leg and show no mercy toward you. 🙂

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