The Real Villain Of Cobra Kai That No One Talks About
One of the great joys of Netflix's latest acquisition, the unlikely Karate Kid sequel series Cobra Kai, is the new complexity the show brings to Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), the toe-headed villain from the iconic original film. In Cobra Kai, Johnny takes center stage, exploring his sad existence as a home repair guy in the valley living out of some nasty apartment in Reseda. Apparently, the Cobra Kai dojo's top dawg seriously peaked in high school; that doesn't mean he hasn't learned from any of his mistakes, though.
34 years after the crane kick that sealed Danny LaRusso's (Ralph Macchio) victory in the most-consequential All Valley Karate Tournament of all time, Johnny has a new lease on life and a new plan for Cobra Kai. An older, wiser Zabka brings a whole new level of pathos to the character — so much so that we can't help but root for his success with the resurrected Cobra Kai dojo, now relocated to a strip mall in Reseda. Johnny Lawrence is, without a doubt, the true hero of Cobra Kai. So does that make Danny LaRusso the villain? Not quite.
While all of the adult characters on Cobra Kai act like villains now and again (except for Danny's wife Amanda [Courtney Henggeler], the most reasonable human being in the San Fernando Valley), it's easy to empathize with both Zabka's Lawrence and Macchio's LaRusso. So, who does that leave for us to root against? One Reddit user posting under the handle u/TheySleep_ILive has an answer to this query, and it sure seems spot on.
Cousin Louie is the absolute worst on Cobra Kai
According to this insightful Redditor, the worst character on Cobra Kai is none other than Danny's incompetent cousin Louie (Bret Ernst). You remember Louie. Through an act of extraordinary nepotism, he held a position of authority at LaRusso's successful chain of luxury car dealerships. Louie compromised this position when he rallied a bunch of out-of-town motorcycle toughs to take a torch to Johnny Lawrence's car.
This one act of gross incivility got him canned at the dealership and pretty much banned from the LaRussos lives altogether. It also set off a new round of hostility between Danny and Johnny, who blamed his teenage karate rival for the torching. At that point, even Amanda was ready to get rid of Louie, and who can honestly blame her?
If you needed someone to hate on Cobra Kai, look no further. Danny's cousin Louie is the one guy who might be even worse than 17-year-old Johnny Lawrence. Heck — he might even be worse than Kreese.