Regarding Kwon and Cobra Kai (SPOILERS)

Kwon’s ending is absolutely tragic, no way around it. A young boy dying, troubled as he was, is always horrible.

But I think it was a necessary death. Why? I’ll explain. Before I go on, I’m not talking about who is responsible for his immediate death or whatever, I’ll purely be talking about it in a creative perspective.

Since the beginning of the Karate Kid, we see two philosophies of karate clashing against one another. An aggressive one against a pacifist one, one that divides people in strong and weak and one that aims to bring out strength in everyone, one that has no mercy, one that always tries to show mercy. Think of KK1 and KK3, where it’s made clear to us that the Cobra Kai philosophy is in fact the ‘bad’ way of viewing karate and Miyagi Do is the ‘right way’.

While the show aims to show us a better side of Cobra Kai (under Lawrence) and show us the limits of Miyagi Do, we also see how the Cobra Kai creed fails over and over again. Tori viciously attacking Sam, Hawk breaking Dimitri’s arm, constant brawls,… Cobra Kais are taught to never surrender, give away no quarter, never show mercy and to do what they have to to win. Cobra Kai fails again and again to send the right message. Even after Lawrence did his very best and had the best intentions. It’s why Eagle Fang does work, by the point this dojo is born, Johnny had already been influenced by Daniel and abandoned the CK creed.

While Daniel is also confronted that his ways need to evolve, the creed of Miyagi Do (imho) never seems to be the cause of this insane violence. Of course his rivalry with Johnny doesn’t help things and Daniel still clearly hasn’t mastered Miyagi Do’s teachings fully, otherwise he wouldn’t be so stubborn and such a hothead. This is the problem with Miyagi Do, it seems to difficult to master the philosophy. If Daniel, who has spent his life trying to master it and still hasn’t, how are kids going to do it? So both Johnny and Daniel learn that, while Miyagi Do proves to be the best foundation, it could use some of that Eagle Fang magic.

But Cobra Kai never dies, thanks to Kreese. Kreese still believes in the creed and is almost blinded by it. His way is the right way and is what the youth needs. He isn’t willing to compromise any part of the creed. He awakens the beast that is Silver, with all the consequences to follow. Even after the incredible failure that was the partnership of Kreese and Silver, Kreese doesn’t abandon Cobra Kai.

Instead, he travels to South Korea to find the truest form of CK, shedding his last ‘weakness’ (Johnny) he has to fully embrace it. He doesn’t for a second blame his creed, but instead blames his feelings he had for Johnny. Kreese arguably becomes the most extreme version of himself and finds a psycho prodigy, Kwon, to lead his dojo.

This extreme version of Kreese is ready to kill and do what it takes to destroy Miyagi Do. His creed and all its extremities influence Kwon and takes him to new heights.

This pure form of CK, in which anger and mercilessness are celebrated, finally lead to the worst possible thing; the death of a CK student. A student who was filled with hate, anger and aggression.

Kwon’s death is important. It definitively proves that Cobra Kai isn’t just a bad influence, it will send people down horrible paths and will lead to the suffering and even death of its students and others.

Of course I didn’t want Kwon to die, he was a misguided kid that was influenced by the wrong message.

“No such thing as bad student, only bad teacher.”