With just one season left, Cobra Kai is approaching the end. To ensure a satisfying finish, Cobra Kai season 6 needs to avoid seven mistakes.
To ensure a satisfying finish, Cobra Kai season 6 needs to avoid six crucial mistakes that would ruin its ending. So far, The Karate Kid sequel series has had an outstanding, celebrated run. All five seasons have been considered strong entries, which is an impressive feat that lasts longer than a few years.
Of course, Cobra Kai has yet to end, so how the series as a whole will be judged remains to be seen, and obviously won’t be clear until after the series finale. Unfortunately, there are a number of extremely popular, well-liked shows that ended with divisive season finales, including Game of Thrones and Lost. There’s no sign yet of Cobra Kai heading down that road just yet, though. However, a number of common mistakes could get in the way of Cobra Kai having a good ending.
6. Raising Its Stakes Sky High For The Final Episodes
As is often the case with long-running action shows, the stakes get higher the longer they continue. Considering that the season 5 finale featured a fight with all of the villains from the original trilogy, Cobra Kai is no exception. And with the last season expected to revolve around a world karate tournament, season 6 is in a position to carry on this trend. That said, it’s important for Cobra Kai not to become too ambitious in its final season. Being a show with somewhat small stakes, such as its focus on winning local karate competitions, is part of its charm.
Cobra Kai would risk losing a shred of its identity if it goes too big for the final season. Having one of its characters wins something as massive as a tournament on the international level risks the show reaching into unrealistic territory, especially when they’ve been competing in much less meaningful events up until now. It can avoid that if Cobra Kai’s characters lose, or if it emphasizes this idea from season 5, which is that the Sekai Taikai is a largely unknown event. In other words, it may not have many competitors.
5. Neatly Pairing Off Every Cobra Kai Main Character Into Romantic Couples
Since romance plays an integral role in Cobra Kai, it’s sure to be important to the ending as well. That said, not every character needs to be in a romantic relationship when Cobra Kai ends. These sorts of scenarios usually come about when shows try to give all their main characters happy endings, but pairing everyone into couples isn’t ideal – particularly when it’s not the ending every character necessarily needs or wants. Cobra Kai has already done this to a lesser extent, and theoretically, could take it even further with the characters yet to have proper romances on the show, such as Chozen, Mike Barnes, and Kenny.
4. Redeeming Every Cobra Kai Character
For some of its characters, Cobra Kai has been a story of redemption, but that’s not to say it should be everyone’s endgame. Longtime rivals like Tory and Sam burying the hatchet so that the former can finally join the good guys was an earned moment for the show, but that’s because she’s been on that path for a while now. As enjoyable as it may be to see everyone end on good terms with each other, it wouldn’t be a fitting ending when considering the trajectories of certain characters’ stories.
Mitch just committed the ultimate betrayal, Terry Silver has expressed no remorse for his current course, Kreese is on the warpath against Johnny and Daniel, and Kyler has few (if any) redeemable qualities. One or possibly two of these characters gaining redemption is feasible, at least, but Cobra Kai doesn’t have to make its cast one big happy family at the end of the series; it just wouldn’t be true to the characters.
3. Meaningless New Karate Kid Characters Join Cobra Kai Season 6
Karate Kid cameos in Cobra Kai are among the most highly anticipated elements of every season prior to release. This nostalgic aspect of the show has worked out wonderfully for the series, with reception to the majority of its returning Karate Kid characters being overwhelmingly positive. By giving them compelling arcs and fitting them neatly into the story, Cobra Kai made their returns to the franchise matter. It even found a way to make Daniel’s forgotten Karate Kid Part III love interest, Robyn Lively’s Jessica Andrews, relevant to the plot.
Since Cobra Kai has found so much success with this formula, it may keep it up in season 6, but doing so could come with problems. If Cobra Kai were to bring back anyone else, whether it be Dutch, Julie Pierce, or the Karate Kid remake characters, it has to be careful about how they’re integrated into the story. With season 6 being its final chapter, it’s essential that Cobra Kai keep its focus on its core cast and avoid adding any pointless characters.
2. Moving Beyond Johnny & Daniel’s Story
Over the years, Cobra Kai has grown a great deal, with its story evolving beyond the Johnny-Daniel dynamic it started with. That was on full display in Cobra Kai season 5, which depicted Chozen as an equal partner to Johnny and Daniel in their fight against Terry Silver. Plus, it recently brought in Mike Barnes, who may or may not be coming back for more stories. While it’s great for Cobra Kai to offer arcs for so many Karate Kid fan favorites, it shouldn’t leave behind its original premise. Daniel and Johnny may not be at odds anymore, but their relationship was the basis of the show and deserves to be brought into greater focus for Cobra Kai season 6’s final episodes.
1. Not Having A Clear Winner In Cobra Kai Season 6’s Final Tournament
Not giving the Sekai Taikai a definitive winner is a mistake that could ruin the Cobra Kai series finale. In a sense, the upcoming world tournament feels like a culmination of all the challenges and training the show’s characters have endured throughout the series. Winning the Sekai Taikai is the grand prize for all of them – but only one can be the true winner.
What that means is that all but one of Cobra Kai’s characters are doomed to fall short in the closing episodes of the series. That’s the nature of these competitions, though, so Cobra Kai proving that one character is better than everyone else is a necessary resolution to the story, even if it calls for disappointing turnouts from everyone else. Not picking a winner would hurt any payoff the finale tries to offer, hence why the identity of Cobra Kai’s best teenage fighter needs to be clear when the show ends.
