Warning: SPOILERS for Cobra Kai season 5.The big issues Cobra Kai The Season 5 finale proved that the show works much better without a tournament. After Cobra Kai’s victory at the All Valley at the end of Season 4, Terry Silver and his expanded Cobra Kai dojo posed the greatest threat Daniel had ever faced – how to stop Cobra Kai to become the number one karate philosophy in the valley. Cobra Kai season 5 saw Daniel, Chozen, and Johnny take the fight against Silver on a personal level, and it reminded viewers how much more creative the show can be when no tournaments are involved.
As the first chapter of this new Karate Kid generation, it seemed logical that Cobra Kai season 1 would end with a new version of the All Valley Karate Tournament. Likewise, after a year has passed in the universe between Cobra Kai season 1 and Cobra Kai season 4, the show was to feature another edition of the All Valley – one with higher stakes now that Johnny and Daniel had made a bet with Kreese. With Cobra Kai with Season 5 picking up where Season 4 left off, there was no room for another All Valley Tournament.
No tournament taking place at the end of the season, Cobra Kai season 5 was able to tell an unpredictable story in which the characters’ personal lives were at stake and not just their karate reputations. Unlike Season 4, in which Cobra Kai’s only mission was to win the All Valley, no one knew for sure what Terry Silver’s goals were in Cobra Kai season 5 were. This made it a more intriguing Cobra Kai season and allowed the show to be more creative in terms of who would face whom and where the fights would take place. Cobra Kai Season 5 ended with Chozen, Johnny, and Mike Barnes breaking into Terry Silver’s house to fight to the death, which is way more exciting than another tournament. Previously, Cobra Kai Season 2’s iconic school fight and Season 3 home fight had also shown how much more fun the show could be when characters weren’t battling for points.
Cobra Kai Season 6’s Sekai Taikai May Solve The Show’s Entire Valley Problem
It’s clear that Cobra Kai season 6 will feature a tournament, the Sekai Taikai, which may prove disappointing after such high stakes Cobra Kai end of season 5. With Cobra Kai season 5 proving once again that not having a tournament helps the show be more creative and have bigger and better choreographed fight scenes, Cobra Kai Season 6’s Sekai Taikai will need to be different from All Valley in others to work. The fact that the Sekai Taikai is a global tournament may help steer the competition away from the All Valley, but the key to making this new tournament more appealing than the previous two is to make it unpredictable. It was obvious that Miguel would win the tournament by Cobra Kai season 1, just like everything showed Eli and Tory winning the All Valley in Cobra Kai season 4.
The biggest problem with the Alle valley Cobra Kai season 1 and 4 is that it made the entire seasons predictable. Without a tournament Cobra Kai is always bigger and bolder – as evidenced by the school fight, Daniel’s home fight, and Chozen’s life-and-death battle against Terry Silver. The Cobra Kai The Season 5 finale set the bar high for the show, which is why the Sekai Taikai in Cobra Kai season 6 will have to be something unique, and above all, something unpredictable.
