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SCHOOL SPIRITS (2023-) S02E02―Field of Screams

𝐏𝐄𝐘𝐓𝐎𝐍 𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓 𝐀𝐒 𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐍𝐈𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐒

cobra kai season six part two: episode six.

the problem with making axel and zara too overpowered (OP) in part 2 of cobra kai.

going into part 2 my biggest worry was that they were going to make axel and zara too OP- like never losing a fight in the tournament, and unfortunately that’s exactly what happened.

the issue with making them too OP is that it messes with the balance of our existing characters. when you introduce new characters and have them win every fight without losing not even one it cheapens the tournament and it also screws over our existing characters.

axel and zara could have been strong, shown as threatening without the need to make them bulldoze throughout all of their matches.

by never letting them lose, it sets up absolute annoying and ridiculous discourse like this:

‘it doesn’t make sense for this person to beat this person’

‘they were nerfed’

‘they only won because of plot armour’

and let’s be honest. the ‘plot armour’ discourse is fucking stupid. every character in the show has plot to some extent. if they didn’t, they wouldn’t have made it this far in the show. but also, why would they have 2 characters who were introduced in part 2 of the last season win over sam, miguel and robby who have been here since season 1 and tory who has been here since season 2. that literally wouldn’t make any sense.

moving on, if our existing characters had lost to the new characters that wouldn’t been fine. like that is not the issue here. the issue is that axel and zara completely dominated the tournament. it should have been balanced.

axel and zara should have been shown to be beatable by actually losing matches in the tournament. and if the writers didn’t want them losing matches, the least they could’ve down was allow them to take hits in their matches. here’s how:

1. zara vs another competitor in different dojo (like tiger strike or redentores) in an early round OR vs tory or sam | let zara lose a match to one of them but come back stronger later in the tournament, showing she can adapt easy from a loss.

2. axel vs competitor | have axel lose a match against the competitor in a very close match, only after giving the person he is fighting against a really tough time, pushing his competitor to his limits.

3. injures and exhaustion playing a role here | show them both struggling with fatigue, and having minor injuries, proving that they aren’t fucking invincible and the tournament is tough for everyone involved.

but instead, we got axel and zara just bulldozing their way through the tournament like it was nothing. the big brawl too. in the big brawl, no one landed a hit on axel. zara beat tory in the opening fight with cobra kai vs iron dragons and in the big brawl tory only managed to land one kick on zara before zara regained control. it’s sooo frustrating that they were made out to be so untouchable and invincible.

what makes this worse is learning that choreography was cut that actually showed them both taking hits. i’ve posted this on my blog here a bit ago but there was choreo cut in which tory was getting the upper hand on zara but that didn’t make the cut.

zara was also supposed to take hits in the semi finals against maria. this comes from the woman who plays maria (jewels) in an interview on youtube.

and axel was also meant to take hits from kwon in the big brawl. this also came from an interview with brandon who plays kwon.

like.. that’s still not ideal but it’s at least better than making them untouchable.

this has been sitting in my drafts for a while now and i’m posting this ahead of part 3 since that drops in a few days, also the fact that we know someone is gonna be beating axel and zara in the sekai taikai.

i can’t believe i have to sit through ‘axel/zara was nerfed’ and ‘it doesn’t make sense for zara/axel to loose to..’ ‘… beating axel/zara is unrealistic’

like dude cobra kai was never a realistic show in the first place, don’t piss me off. ‘in reality this character would win’ no shit dude. like that argument is so stupid and irrelevant. like thank you so much for pointing out the obvious ??

as if those people who say this aren’t insufferable enough they’re gonna be even more insufferable now that they’ve basically been given the ammo to say all of this shit.

like i’m truly so annoyed about it, but hey. what can you doooo?

cobra kai writers you had ONE JOB! ONE!

big big sigh.

Leadership is not tearing your fucking captain down when he is at his lowest knowing well enough that his loss means yours as well. I can already see all the comments saying Miguel should have been captain but I think that scene alone proved the contrary. I understand both ways and I know it was probably really frustrating how unfocused Robby was at first, but everyone was blaming him and just one good word from ANYONE could have been enough to at least not tear him down completely and everyone failed at that.

So minimal school spirits fandom that I now know exists, what do we think about the theory that this whole thing started bc of a science experiment gone wrong?

(I could be misremembering here so correct me if I am) Mr. Martin and Janet died in a fire in what is now the fallout shelter, and in one of the articles they found another student in the class was blaming Mr. Martin for starting the fire and bringing Janet in there with him.

what if

stay with me here

what if, they were doing some kind of research experiment together (hence the chemical formulas in the beginning of Janet's notebook, and the shorthand) that went wrong, and what they'd done of that experiment plus them dying in the room in the fire with it, trapped their souls there.

which raises the question, when Mr. Martin locked her in that room, was it with the watch? was she experiencing that freaking red room thing relieving that day over and over for months? is that what they were arguing about right before Maddie found them? was he making her relive that to try and figure out where the mistake was in their experiment, because he wanted to try and redo or reverse it and that's why Mr. Martin was trying to force her to tell him what she saw?

as far as we know date wise Janet and Mr. Martin are the oldest ghosts, they've been there longest, they could very well be the start of it all.

tory and robby ‘i love you’ scene and marriage WHENNN?? GIVE IT TO ME.

cant believe i have to wait 89 days, 3 MONTHS till i finally get my keenry love confession.

RAHHHH i need it now.

this definitely my fav keenry scene in part 2, like the lighting, the scenery, THEM. the holding of hands AHHHHH DJDKSK, FISH behind em!! like y’all 😫

also need my babies to win sekai taikai, on different teams but on that podium TOGETHER. THAT PROMISE NEEDS TO COME TRUE!

‘you and me. we stick together and win the sekai taikai.’

i hate that i only discovered cobra kai this year on its last season.. over a few months i’ve just fell in love with the show completely.

excited for part 3, but realising when that drops cobra kai ends is a weird feeling. also a feeling i cant describe because it just feels weird?!

i fell in love with the characters the cast. it’s all just crazy lol.

sidenote: considering sekai taikai will probably be over in like one or two episodes max, i hope we get the couples finally able to be couples.

kinda forget that they’re all gonna have trauma and be scarred for life becasue of kwons death 🫠

regardless, i hope they end cobra kai off beautifully.

school spirits was so funny for doing a plot in one episode about how mad two of maddies friends were that she didn't tell them simon could see her & having it be resolved w maddie saying "i'm sorry i kept it a secret, i'll never do it again & i'll tell all the other ghosts right away" only for the ghosts to be like "well, hang on a minute. i know we were pissed you kept it from us, but maybe lying really is the answer here. just don't do it to me"

“She wasn’t forcing him in any way” YOU chose to show Robby so drunk he couldn’t talk and could barely stand. YOU chose to show Robby come out of that room and say he couldn’t remember what happened. YOU chose to show him stand there like a zombie unresponsive while she kissed him and then stumble away like he didn’t know what planet he was on. YOU chose to depict a situation where one party so obviously could not consent, and the other was acutely aware of that fact. Stop playing fucking dumb and admit you’re a pathetic rape apologist and move the fuck on.

‘i didn’t think you needed my support as much as robby’

uhhhhh. have i missed something? what support have you given robby up to this specific point johnny?

you were there for devon more than your own son.

i mean he has a pattern in choosing other kids over his own son so im not even surprised.

#deadbeatloserassdad