you WILL look at my bad memes from today

This deserves to be reblogged.

Maybe if I put this into words it’ll stop bothering me.

Anyway, I’m about to be a “hater” so if you don’t want to deal with that, uh. that’s your warning, I guess?

I just, I thought that rewriting Ali and Johnny’s reunion would help but I still need to rant about it apparently.

Okay.

Johnny is not just a shitty ex boyfriend in the film. He’s not just being an annoying jerk. His actions are pretty serious, and Ali’s reaction to them is also pretty serious. He’s controlling and possessive. He’s basically treating her like she’s his, and that’s after she broke up with him and made it very clear that she did not want to speak to him.

I know that the film is mostly from Daniel’s perspective, and now that the show has revived their rivalry, it’s easy to consider Johnny and Daniel’s relationship as something that stands on his own.

But think about Ali’s perspective for a moment. She broke up with this guy some weeks ago. On the beach, she explicity says that she wants him to leave her alone, and it seems like it’s not the first time she has had to do that (“We’ve been over this, alright? I don’t want to talk.” Also, she clearly recognizes them from afar and kicks the ball pretty far, so that Daniel won’t be there when they arrive. In short, this may have happened before. Or, at least, she expects this kind of behavior from him.) Before she meets Daniel, she’s already dealing with a shitty situation where she’s putting up with someone that doesn’t respect her boundaries.

So, she meets this guy and starts considering the idea of dating him. That’s what she wants to do: she’s single, she’s ready to move on. And suddenly, her ex decides that, since he’s not over her, he’s not going to allow that to happen. He gets into a fight with the guy, kicks his ass, badly (while one of his friends is physically holding Ali back so she can’t intervene), and then he blames it on her, because she refused to go with him when he asked her to. I’m not reading between the lines here, he literally tells her that.

Ali agreeing to go talk to him because of the fight tells us that she feels like she’s responsible in some way, even though she understands that it’s not her fault. Responsible doesn’t feel like the right word. You know when you realize that something is not your fault, but you know that you can change the situation, and you also know that the person that’s actually in the wrong won’t stop, so it kinda feels like it’s up to you to do what you can? That.

When I say that Johnny’s being controlling, I mean it. He’s not just acting like a jealous ex, throwing a tantrum. He’s actively trying to control Ali’s love life. Yes, at some point, his hatred for Daniel becomes its own thing. But in the beginning he sees him as an obstacle for getting “his girl” back and that’s why he’s going after him. There are two ways he’s trying to keep Ali from moving on. On one hand, he’s attempting to drive Daniel away. If Daniel was less of a brave idiot, at this point  he probably would have been like “Ali, you’re nice but this guy wants to kill me. See ya!”

It’s a pretty straight forward way of “marking your territory” (ugh), and I think Johnny’s doing it consciously. The second one is aimed at Ali. Now, there are certain lines Johnny won’t cross, in the movie, so of course he won’t use physical violence against her. But, he is making her feel like as long as she’s trying to date Daniel, he’s going to be in physical danger. I don’t know if Johnny recognizes it as trying to force her hand, but from Ali’s perspective, not doing what Johnny wants her to do is putting someone in danger.

Honestly, when I watched the Karate kid the first time, I liked her as a character but I was pretty focused on Daniel and Mr. Miyagi. Now that I re-watched the beach scene, I focused on her. Her dialogue and her expressions. And everything feels worse somehow. And I felt for Daniel, but I’m picturing the situation she’s in and it’s… I don’t know. It’s so FUCKED. I’ve never been on a situation like that. I’m familiar with the experience of men not taking no for an answer in public spaces, but I’ve never been in a situation where I feel like if I don’t go back to a partner or, at least, if I don’t stop pursuing a new relationship, a person I care about is going to suffer the consequences. Physically. It really doesn’t seem like something I would forget easily though.

I know that since Ali saw Daniel win the tournament, the real scary part of the situation went away. But I think Ali would still remember those moments. The fucked emotions don’t just go away once the threat is no longer real.

And even without that, she was just so pissed at him. It’s obvious that she hates being treated like a prize or a prop. Maybe I’m projecting because I have zero tolerance for that bullshit, but she seems like a pretty independent person. I imagine that she would take any attempt at controlling her very very seriously.

(have you consider taking karate lessons, queen?)

side note: I also got this caption from the beach scene.

I always thought Freddy was a shitty friend, but now that I’ve seen the scene again, I noticed that he seems kind of sad. Like he’s being pressured to stop taking to Daniel. Hmmm. Redemption arc for Freddy, it’s what I’m saying.

Anyway, throw in a non-consensual kiss and… emmm. While I agree that Ali didn’t spend the last 34 years thinking about the past like Johnny and Daniel did, the writers take that at step further and assume that she has no negative feeling towards Johnny. I don’t think that makes sense.

Which makes me wonder, how do they interpret his behavior in the film? Do they see it as controlling?

It’s weird because I thought they understood the implications, based on how they portrayed Miguel during the tournament. Not just the “no mercy” part. They specifically had him repeating Johnny’s controlling behavior. When Sam sort of rejects his apology and questions him, Miguel says this:

I thought, surely this is showing how Johnny didn’t just pass on the “no mercy” values to his students, he also passed down his misogyny.  Once again, we see a jealous ex threatening his gf with physical violence against a potential new boyfriend.

But now, I don’t know?

Did they intend to make that comparison or was it just a superficial parallel? Did they mean to address that at some point and then decided that they wanted a happy reunion? I don’t get it. I watched the show some time ago, I only rewatched this scenes recently. But honestly, even if I’m forgetting something, that reunion scene still looks pretty terrible.

I mean, look at this:

I’m going to give the writers some credit and assume that’s not a literal call-back to the scene. But Jesus Christ.

FINALLY SOMEONE SAID IT👏👏👏👏

When are we going to talk about Terry's mental illness? And how he stopped taking his meds and basically relapsed? I feel like no one understands how hard it is to go through that. Relapsing is one of the worst things I've ever experienced.

People who hate on him for how he acts seriously just don't get it. He's not evil, he just needs help.

Hes also suicidal.

why aren't we talking about it?

Right!!!! I’ve literally been thinking about this since I finished watching! I thought I was losing it.

On a Q+A with fans, Hayden Schlossberg asked fans to think which major character would die. Shamoon Saeed/Cobra Kai Nation said, “Bert’s virginity,” with Hayden responding that Bert already lost his virginity at Stingray’s party, which will be revealed in the Season 4 deleted scenes.

Just weird, fun, and concerning stuff about Karate Kid 3, enjoy my iceberg.

Anything I should add? Or order I need to change? Imma have to say my favorite is the Paula Abdul thing…funny to me 😂

WAIT I’ve remembered something: RMK not wanting to even write it, but actually wanting to make basically a Kung Fu Miyagi-Family Origin Story set several 100 years ago.

It wasn't just an origin story, it was a time travel movie where Daniel and Mr. Miyagi would have gone to the past (and in the end it would turn out to be a dream).

The other alternate Karate Kid 3 plot was one where Daniel dies at the end after getting into a really bad fight.

I should probably update this sometime soon 😂😅😭

3.02 // 3.10

#please let this be a recurring thing#PLEASE#JUST PICK HIM UP

#HOW TO PICK UP TWINKS

#people can just lift him huh

#daniel larusso: [exists]#everyone else: [YEET]

#what else are u supposed to do w a 5'9 italian

#all we’re missing is Johnny and Silver lifting him

#YOU SMOL MAN. YOU WILL MAKE A FINE MATE

#when i say larusso got carried away; this is what i mean

#cobra kai villains will see ralph macchio’s 59 year old twink ass and thick hips and be like IS ANYONE ELSE GONNA PICK HIM UP

#bet i could carry you mr macchio

#this is like. so specifically hot i can’t believe it

#PLEASE STOP YEETING THE KARATE TWINK

#PUT HIM DOWN HE’S ONLY LITTLE!!!!!!!

#his enemies: I shall pick him up and throw him

I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO NOTICED