MovieChat Forums > Cobra Kai (2018) Discussion > I really hate how people say that Daniel...

I really hate how people say that Daniel is the real bad guy.


Please, stop it with that stupid theory. Johnny deserved everything that happened to him. He had all of those things coming. This show continued to prove that Johnny is still a loser and a piece of crap.

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It was funny when the original YouTube video did it, but has been beaten into the ground by guys who keep the joke going and just refuse to break character.

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Nobody’s “in character”. The evidence is there for everyone to see.

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Fuck off. You idiots have been doing this since IMDB. It's fine if you want to sit around in your little circle jerk with your little inside joke, but you dicks take over entire boards. REAL conversations about the movies and this show are not possible because you hijack them all.

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The Anti-Daniel movement originated with the online Kai, inspiring a storyline on HIMYM and later leading to the reboot. You owe the existence of this show to the original members of the KKIII board. Anyone familiar with the old school content will recognize its influence on the current show, whose writers have obviously lifted material directly from threads. Cobra Kai never dies.

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Yes, as an in-joke nod to those fans. Not as a plot point meant to be taken seriously. People with brains can tell the difference.

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Yes, as an in-joke nod to those fans. Not as a plot point meant to be taken seriously. People with brains can tell the difference.

^^Ehhhh IDK man the internet takes it pretty seriously

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Ehhhh IDK man the internet takes it pretty seriously
Many people online are idiots who don't get satire. That's why you have morons who also really believe that Zack Morris is trash and Jar Jar Binks is a Sith Lord....

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Many people online are idiots who don't get satire. That's why you have morons who also really believe that Zack Morris is trash and Jar Jar Binks is a Sith Lord....

^^Fantastically well said.

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Correct. It's as stupid as the people who couldn't realize the "Jar Jar is the master Sith Lord" thing was a joke....

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I think its great to see Johnny as the protagonist in the series but I'm with you I'll never buy into the idea of Daniel being the villain. It negates the emotion and purpose of the original movies and its insulting to Mr. Miyagi.

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Miyagi was a calculating villain who groomed Daniel for a life of crime and erotic slavery. A closer study of the original films reveals the classic warning signs of a seasoned predator.

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Just stop.

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You sound like one of his victims.

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Good to see you, NRC123. Been a while since the KKIII IMDb boards.

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Cobra Kai never dies.

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Daniel isn't the bad guy, and neither is Johnny. The bad guy is (and has always been) John Kreese. As Miyagi so pointedly observed in the original film, "No such thing as bad student, only bad teacher. Teacher say, student do."

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Cobra Kai and Kreese are ultimately the enemy.

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I would argue that Cobra Kai is simply the "form" of karate, similar to Shotokan, Shorin-Ryu, Goju-Ryu, etc. The philosophy taught by Kreese and Silver to students under the guise of Cobra Kai is what was flawed. Essentially these students were taught the karate form combined with a "take no prisoners, no mercy" attitude that Kreese and Silver had been instilled with from their military service.

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The way I see it: the philosophy that goes with the form is all part of Cobra Kai. In essence, if you take away the "no mercy" part (like Johnny eventually tried to do), you're not teaching Cobra Kai anymore.

It almost seems like Cobra Kai is an entity that can't be changed. Lol. You either destroy it or avoid it, but you won't change it.

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The bad guy is (and has always been) John Kreese.


Sensei John Kreese saved Terry Silver’s life in Vietnam multiple times. There wouldn’t have been a Dynatox Industries had it not been for his heroics. According to Silver himself, Kreese was “the greatest karate man I have ever known.”

The philosophy taught by Kreese and Silver to students under the guise of Cobra Kai is what was flawed.


The Quicksilver method turned wimps into winners. Even Daniel (briefly) showed signs of masculinity under Silver’s guidance. Johnny singlehandedly upset an entire school’s social structure, turning Miguel, Hawk and Ms Robinson into the cool kids.

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Silver was using the "Quicksilver method" in order to intentionally train Daniel to lose.

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And yet it did wonders for his confidence. He asserted himself at the Downstairs and protected Jessica’s honour.

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Don't take everything so seriously. It's just a joke.

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Are you actually watching the show? Johnny is the protaganist. He has had a rough go of it and is no angel, for sure. He makes a lot of bad decisions, but he is not a bad person. He is trying to do the right thing and get his life turned around, and Daniel feels the need to dump all over him. Daniel is a very unbalanced individual. He is quick to anger, a terrible parent (what is up with his chubby son?!), and had a bad habit of jumping to conclusions without listening to what anyone has to say, including his wife. In this series, he is a little more of the "bad guy" than Johnny, although I would argue that Kreese is truly the bad guy.
In the original movies, Daniel did display that same anger he is showing now in Cobra Kai, but with Miyagi around he was better at controlling/channeling it. Daniel was never a saint, either.

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Daniel isn't the villain of the show either. Both Daniel and Johnny are imperfect people.

What do Hannibal, Psycho, The Walking Dead, and Cobra Kai all have in common? They are all named after the true antagonist of their respective shows/films.

When people argue who the "real villain" of the show is, the answer is Cobra Kai. The whole philosophy behind the Cobra Kai style of karate is basically fighting without honor. Johnny is conflicted as he knows from experience that people should fight with honor, but he teaches the Cobra Kai philosophy, which is ultimately the antithesis of that. Daniel knows this from the start. Johnny only really starts to realize this when he sees his students fighting dirty at the tournament. Later, when he tries to change the "no mercy" rule, he's essentially not teaching the Cobra Kai philosophy anymore. That's when Cobra Kai turns on him.

Johnny started seeing the flaws of "no mercy" even towards the end of the original film. But he doesn't fully get it until 30+ years later.

Johnny and Daniel aren't the villains. They're imperfect characters whose lives have both been impacted by the corruption that is Cobra Kai.

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I agree with you and I also think Kobra Kai is itself a metaphor for something. The whole slogan, strike hard, strike first, no mercy, summarises the belief that if you don't strike first, the other person will. Johnny and Daniel are adults who should have gotten over their teenage vendetta many years ago, but they re-ignite their vendetta because each of them expects the other to strike first.

I said in another thread, I think the metaphor here is really about fatherhood. Daniel has thrived because he had the father-like attention of Mr Miyagi, who really did have himself under control. Johnny has failed because his father-figure was Kreese. In turn, Johnny is a terrible father to his own son, and tries to fix things by becoming a better father figure to Miguel; but Johnny's fathering of Miguel is flawed because Johnny learned his own fathering techniques from Kreese and from his terrible stepfather.

I might be wrong, depending on how the mothers turn out. But so far in mid-season 1, I think the mothers are presented as essentially functional, or otherwise not at fault (eg Johnny's ex-wife is not a good mother, but it's blamed on Johnny having abandoned her to raise their child by herself), so I think the show is not really about motherhood.

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I didn't say Daniel is the villain, if you read my comment fully, I specifically say I don't think Daniel is the villain, I think Kreese is the ultimate villain. Kreese created Cobra kai, it's his baby and his philosophy, he is to blame. I was just pointing out that people do have a point when they say that Daniel isn't a good person like we were made to think in KK. He is a very flawed individual that make some really terrible, selfish, ass-hole decisions while trying to "get back" at Johnny.

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I was just pointing out that people do have a point when they say that Daniel isn't a good person like we were made to think in KK. He is a very flawed individual that make some really terrible, selfish, ass-hole decisions while trying to "get back" at Johnny.
Except Daniel also did all that stuff in KK. The show isn't adding anything new to the mix in terms of Daniel's character (so far)....

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Johnny and Daniel are both 12 year old kids in a 50 year old man's body.

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Daniel is a self-righteous, pompous, arrogant prick with a face that begs to be punched. He thinks because he's rich and has a trophy wife and a mansion he can pontificate on how other people should live their lives and tell them what to do. He seriously needs to have his ass kicked. I don't think Mr. Miyagi would approve of what a dickweed he has become.

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Well Daniel was causing trouble all the time pretty much when he should have minded his own business. Especially when he caused the bathroom sprinkler to turn on to ruin Johnny's time smoking the reefer.

Daniel deserved that beating

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They were literally going to kill him for that had Miyagi not intervened. The sprinkler thing was a dick move, but the reaction was a little excessive.

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They were making citizens arrest. He shouldn’t have resisted.

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He didn't have chance to resist. Johnny grabbed him and flung him towards another Kai who kneed him in the guts, followed by Johnny punching him in the guts. No resistance at all.

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He fled the scene of an accident he caused.

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Which was also caused being pursued by the Kai. So they are to blame as well. Furthermore, they showed no concern for those in the accident nor for the fact Daniel could no longer stand after the beating he had taken. In fact the beating was continuing and had it not been for Miyagi pushing Daniel aside, could well have ended in death for Daniel. They then attempted to assault Miyagi (an old man) for stopping them. All over a prank where someone got soaked.
Take your blinkers off!

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Daniel deserved that beating

Really? He deserved such a vicious beating for soaking someone?
Idiot.

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He's trolling

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Probably

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