Why The Fallout From Robby And Miguel's Fight Has Cobra Kai Fans Confused
As one could surmise from the title, The Karate Kid franchise has had plenty of awesome fights to make anyone want to sign up for martial arts classes. From the final fight between Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) in the first Karate Kid film to Daniel duking it out with Chozen (Yuji Okumoto) in the sequel, a fight which resulted in a fair amount of bloodshed, somehow this series has always found a way to top itself.
Arguably, some of the best fights of all have occurred within the most recent addition to The Karate Kid canon – Cobra Kai. There's something oh-so satisfying about watching Miguel (Xolo Maridueña) putting the beatdown on some bullies in the school cafeteria, and fans of the original movie no doubt loved watching the epic rematch between Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do during the final bout of the All Valley Tournament. Even those fail to hold a candle to one of the most impressive fights we've seen in any TV show ever — the season 2 finale brawl at West Valley High School.
Former friends went toe-to-toe as karate students slammed each other into lockers and caused untold levels of property damage. While most of the combatants just walked away with some bruised egos, Miguel wasn't as lucky, as Robby (Tanner Buchanan) accidentally kicks him over a stairway railing, injuring his spine in the process. When season 3 kicks off, Miguel is still in the hospital, and Robby's on the run from the cops. Both kids turn out all right, and frankly, that has some fans puzzled.
Robby's early release and Miguel's miraculous recovery just don't add up
Self-defense will only get you so far, and considering Robby ran away from authorities following the fight, it seems weird that he spends such a minimal amount of time in jail. He's released early due to getting in a volunteer program and goes on probation, but honestly, it kind of seems like he should have to face some attempted murder charges for what he did to Miguel. At the very least, you would assume Miguel would want a restraining order against Robby, which would certainly make things interesting if they both wanted to compete in the next All Valley Tournament.
That's just the beginning of these odd character arcs. Miguel survives the fight and is released from the hospital, albeit dependent on a wheelchair and crutches to get around. Johnny insists he can overcome his injuries to walk and fight again, and after an obligatory montage, Miguel's back to the way he was ... with the occasional stumble here and there. He symbolizes this by throwing away his crutches, but when you think about it, shouldn't he hang onto that stuff? The exact timeline in the show may be fuzzy, but it couldn't have been more than a few months of Miguel working with Johnny.
With only ten episodes in a season, we suppose a lot of expediting had to occur so that everyone could get in place where they needed to be for the finale. Season 4 promises the team-up of Daniel and Johnny as they finally work together to take down Kreese (Martin Kove). Perhaps future episodes will explore these plot threads in greater detail to give fans the answers they're searching for.