Cobra Kai Season 6’s Ending Can Only Succeed If It Uses This Controversial Storytelling Trick

Since Cobra Kai is ending with season 6, the finale will have to pull off a controversial storytelling trick to succeed and conclude on a high note.

While there are several ways in which Cobra Kai season 6 can end the series’ long run, it must employ one controversial storytelling trick to have a satisfying closure. Set 33 years after the first Karate Kid movie, Cobra Kai begins by highlighting how Daniel LaRusso has moved on from his high school rivalries and is successfully running a car sales business. Johnny Lawrence, on the other hand, struggles to make ends meet and still lives in the shadow of his past defeats. The pre-Daniel era of his high school was the highlight of his life, and he cannot help but wonder how life would have been if he had won the All-Valley.

Not everything remains gloomy in the Valley, though, since Johnny finds a new sense of purpose when Miguel becomes his first Cobra Kai student. With what follows, old characters and bad blood gradually resurface when Karate Kid history repeats itself, and new characters find themselves reliving the Valley’s forgotten rivalries. Although simple, this formula has effectively helped Cobra Kai revive the Karate Kid franchise. However, now that Cobra Kai season 5 has resolved most rivalries, season 6 might have to do something unexpected to end the series on a high note.

Cobra Kai Season 6 Needs An Ending Flashforward

Daniel LaRusso initially seems more accomplished and mature than Johnny Lawrence in Cobra Kai season 1. However, when he risks destroying his seemingly perfect life for a trivial high school rivalry, it becomes evident that he, too, has some unresolved issues and is not all that different from Johnny Lawrence. This development in Daniel LaRusso’s arc affirms that he and Johnny lost themselves after becoming karate champions in their youth. While Johnny lives with his defeat’s burden, Daniel struggles to hold on to his dwindling legacy. Cobra Kai’s new generation characters could meet similar fates unless season 6 gives them a positive closure.

In many ways, Cobra Kai’s opening subverts the “happily ever after” note with which the Karate Kid movies end. Although a little negative, this opening allows Cobra Kai to create a gripping conflict for the rest of its seasons. Additionally, it also helps it ground its narrative in realism by highlighting how high school fame and success may not necessarily reflect in a character’s future timeline. While this creates an engaging opening hook for the show, it also suggests that if Cobra Kai season 6 ends with its primary protagonists simply winning the Sekai Taikai, they could repeat Daniel and Johnny’s mistakes in the future.

This would mean that, like Johnny, Miguel could end up as a down-on-his-luck loser in the future, while Robby could take after Daniel LaRusso, becoming an unfulfilled salesman. This may be a stretch, but the tragic projections of their Cobra Kai narratives could also become another Netflix show, titled Miyagi-Do, highlighting how their lives panned out differently than audiences had expected. Therefore, to have some semblance of optimism and hope in its closing moments, Cobra Kai needs to end season 6 with a flash forward that affirms how Robby, Miguel, Johnny, Daniel, and everyone else have moved on for good.

Why Ending Flashforwards Are So Risky (& Controversial)

Ending flash-forwards are often looked down upon and considered risky because if they are too optimistic and hopeful, they can diminish the impact of all the trials and tribulations the characters have endured throughout their respective storylines and even take away the realism that makes their narrative relatable. In contrast, if the ending flash-forwards are too negative, especially in feel-good coming-of-age drams like Cobra Kai, they could disappoint viewers and prevent the series from ending on a high note. Considering how it can be challenging to make a fast-forward ending look convincing, Cobra Kai season 6’s story may be better off staying away from them.

How Cobra Kai Season 6’s Flashforward Ending Could Actually Work

However, Cobra Kai season 6 can overcome these challenges by not drifting too far ahead in its closing flash-forward scenes. By only leaping into the near future, Cobra Kai season 6’s ending flash forward can establish how the characters are still doing well while leaving some room for ambiguity around their fates. This way, the show will not only assure audiences that the new generation characters are not repeating Daniel, Johnny, Kreese, and Silver’s mistakes but also sustain a sense of realism that makes the character beats emotionally resonant.

All in all, the flash-forward ending should not be treated as a separate entity that suddenly concludes Cobra Kai’s narrative with unrealistically positive outcomes. Since audiences have invested so much time into the show’s characters and have seen them go through their respective rite of passage throughout the show, the flash-forward ending should also not be too unexpected. Instead, the best Cobra Kai season 6’s time-jump ending would just be more sweet than bitter with its depiction of the future and narratively coherent with the show’s overarching storylines.