Cobra Kai Season 3 successfully does what Star Wars tried to do with The Last Jedi

Observer

"The third installment in a revival of an ’80s property brings back beloved characters decades later to mentor a new generation, in a story about confronting the legacy of the original franchise, all while an old villain returns to life to haunt both new and old characters," says Rafael Motamayor. "But enough about The Rise of Skywalker, because the third season of Cobra Kai, which has moved from YouTube to Netflix, feels like it was made to show the latest Star Wars movie how to do a legacy sequel right." Motamayor adds: "When The Force Awakens premiered, we saw the returns of Han, Leia and (briefly) Luke Skywalker. But rather than acting as the grand heroes fans expected them to be after defeating the Empire in Episode VI, they were mostly the same people they were in their 20s. Han was still a smuggler, and Leia was leading a rebellion. As for Luke? Well, he starts out his arc in the sequel trilogy in the same place Daniel LaRusso is at in Season 3 of Cobra Kai — having tried to spread the knowledge his master taught him and failed spectacularly when a student went bad. In Season 2 of Cobra Kai, Daniel revives Miyagi-Do Karate specifically to counter Johnny’s Cobra Kai dojo. In the process, he takes Johnny’s son, Robby, as an apprentice, and tries to 'save' him from his father’s legacy and influence. Except Robby does the opposite. In a moment of jealousy and anger, he knocks Johnny’s student Miguel over a railing, cracking his spine and putting him in a coma at the end of last season. Like Luke Skywalker after Ben Solo murders all his students, Daniel shuts down his dojo and all but goes into hiding. This season finds Daniel confronting his mistakes as a teacher, seeing his best student turn to the dark side — or joining the rival karate dojo. And like Luke, it takes some words of encouragement and a new lesson from his own sensei — or rather, an old rival trained in the same school of karate as he was — to make Daniel realize that he doesn’t have to strictly follow the book. When he travels to Okinawa, Japan, and confronts his former fight-to-the-death nemesis, Chozen, Daniel LaRusso gets his 'we are what they grow beyond' moment that Yoda gives to Luke in The Last Jedi and gets back into the fight."

ALSO:

• The Karate Kid Part II's Tamlyn Tomita had Cobra Kai meet several conditions before reprising her Kumiko role: “I said I would love to, this would be so fun, but the only caveat is that because I’m older, because I’m a little bit more knowledgeable and I’m going to fight for it anyway — I need to be able to inject a truer picture of Okinawa,” says Tomita in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, which adds: "Born in Okinawa to a Japanese American father and an Okinawan Filipina mother and raised in the San Fernando Valley, she brought parts of her heritage to the wiser Kumiko of Cobra Kai and lent her own cultural items to the Atlanta set."
• Ralph Macchio, William Zabka and another Karate Kid star discuss the reunion-heavy Season 3
• Co-creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg break down Season 3
• Cobra Kai's self-awareness and ability to laugh at itself while telling a modern story that has made the series such a surprise hit
• The final moments of Season 3 set up a future for the show that'll double its stakes