Johnny Lawrence: A Flawed Hero We Can Cheer For

I love Cobra Kai. Yes, the show is somewhat like a teenage soap opera, but it is also an entertaining trip down memory lane that respects the franchise it is built upon. Although I have much more to say about this series and hope to develop it into perhaps something much more substantial, I want to offer some brief thoughts on the masterful way this series handles the highly overused trope of the flawed hero. Please note that I am not censoring myself from any spoilers, so please read on at your own risk if something like that bothers you.

Johnny Lawrence is a type of flawed hero. He has plenty of issues, and many of his motivations, particularly at the beginning of the series, are questionable. I started calling him an antihero as I wrote this, but that is not really it specifically because I don’t know that he is always doing immoral things for some greater good. A lot of times, he actually does moral things as well, but he certainly has plenty of flaws. Most of us want to cheer for him, but we recognize that he has many problems to work through before he can truly be the hero Daniel LaRusso has always portrayed. While Daniel has had shortcomings and struggled with his own issues of impulsivity in all of the original movies as well as this series, he is brought back to center by the teachings of Mr. Miyagi and ultimately does the right thing. In the original movie, Johnny does gracefully surrender his trophy at the end of the first movie, but is largely portrayed as a bully. He is the villain, but he is not necessarily an arch-villain. He is a bully trained in martial arts, so the results are not pretty. However, he is far from a diabolical evil villain.

That allows him the capacity to emerge as a potential flawed hero in the narrative of Cobra Kai. We want to cheer for Johnny because we recognize that our original impression of him was a guy who was mad about a breakup, got water dumped over his head, and then was embarrassed in a karate tournament by a newcomer out of nowhere when he was a reigning champion. If we are honest, a lot of us might respond similarly in a weak moment. Many people wrestle with anger. We don’t have to approve of his methods to agree that this is someone who certainly has hope for redemption and can learn from his past to become better.

I say that this series masterfully handles the trope of the flawed hero because Johnny does not immediately become a saint. In fact, I don’t think that you can ever say he really makes it to that point. As we can see at the end of the final episode of the final season, he has come so far but remains the same Johnny who will insult his students when he feels like it. Throughout this series, he almost gets so many things right but almost always falls a little bit short or does something to remain the flawed hero.

Many movies are bent on turning the flawed hero into a whitewashed hero, and it just feels inauthentic. This story is content to allow Johnny to grow continually but not fundamentally change who he is. Despite being a world champion by the end, he is still the politically incorrect karate teacher who wishes he still lived in the 1980s, and that’s okay. We still love him and care for him. We appreciate his new family and his newborn daughter. Despite insulting his students, we appreciate how he genuinely cares for them throughout the series. We appreciate his efforts to reach out to Daniel, even though he then typically says something dumb and blows up the entire relationship. Johnny remains rough until the end, but that’s because he is Johnny. That’s why we stick with him. He feels true to real life.

It is so easy for a series, especially when they are trying to finish with a happy ending, as I am very grateful that Cobra Kai does, to feel the pressure to sanitize their hero. Johnny does reach his moral peak as this series winds down. He is indeed a different man than he was initially, but his gradual moral arc is believed. He has learned that there is more to life than absolute aggression. His generally protective instincts that we see first employed to protect Miguel at the beginning of the series are still there, but they are properly channeled. Again, this is not to deny the moral progression he has developed throughout the series, but it is to say that the flawed hero remains flawed.

I hope you have enjoyed the series as much as I have. While I am disappointed to see it end, I am happy it ended solidly while it was still doing well with all of its main cast of protagonists. So many shows go on a little bit too long and die a slow death. This one did well to the end; justice was done, redemption was found, even for John Kreese, and almost everything was set to rights. Is it possible that someday, another spinoff will build off this series? Sure. It is. However, Johnny Lawrence's arc has come to its conclusion, which is excellent. I am glad it went out with a bang, not a whimper.