Cobra Kai Ignores How Recklessly Dangerous Johnny Really Is
Cobra Kai has a very casual attitude towards Johnny Lawrence's reckless behavior and training methods. The episodic continuation of The Karate Kid series dropped its third season on Netflix earlier this year, after the first two seasons had turned the show into a full-blown cultural phenomenon in their Netflix debut. The fourth season is currently in production, and while millions are clearly eager to see the story continue, it hopefully will mark the point where Johnny Lawrence manages to completely pull himself together at last.
Right from the first episode, Cobra Kai is very frank that the middle-aged Johnny has become a complete wreck of a man, barely keeping himself afloat with handyman jobs and having a relationship with his son Robby (Tanner Buchanan) that can charitably be described as strained. Through his connection with Xolo Mariduena's Miguel Diaz and his re-establishment of the Cobra Kai dojo, Johnny gradually starts to pull himself out of the pit of depression and self-destruction he's been in. Despite this, what Johnny doesn't seem to recognize as readily is that he regularly puts himself and his students into very dangerous situations.
Johnny's effectively a functioning alcoholic when Cobra Kai begins, and drives drunk at several points on the show. To be sure, the entire point of the series is Johnny learning to be a better man and a better martial artist through his relationship with Miguel and the other Cobra Kai students, so Johnny starting the show out at his lowest point is to be expected. In any case, through his alcohol consumption and drunk driving, there are multiple points on Cobra Kai where Johnny might have gotten himself or someone else killed.
Johnny also shows his internal conflict in adhering to the Cobra Kai "No Mercy" philosophy instilled in him by John Kreese and with remaking Cobra Kai anew, but he clearly hasn't shaken it off altogether when he first starts training Miguel. Though Johnny begins to ease away from his earlier mindset after season 1's All-Valley Tournament, he still isn't above putting his students into questionable, and at times even dangerous, situations as part of their training. Nowhere is that better captured than when he has several of his students go into a cement mixer to manually get it rolling, Miguel himself even pointing out the dangers the fumes alone bring. Ironically, it's Robby who ends up almost killing Miguel when he kicks him off of a the second floor during season 2's chaotic school fight.
Though Johnny starts turning over a new leaf in season 2, season 3 is where he really seems to recognize the need to work on himself, and even more importantly, to shake off Kreese's influence once and for all. Kreese himself being present during the cement mixer training session, egging Johnny and the students on, Johnny's self-destructive behavior and questionable training methods have come to the fore through a combination of Kreese's role in Johnny's training and Johnny falling on hard times.
In his portrayal of Johnny, William Zabka shows there's a good and wise man struggling to get out, with Johnny's inner demons holding him back and hurting himself and those he cares about. Johnny has behaved very recklessly as both an individual and as a sensei at numerous points on Cobra Kai. With his new efforts to rebrand the dojo and move it away from Kreese's teachings, hopefully Cobra Kai season 4 is where he'll leave his recklessness behind for good.
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