Cobra Kai season 5 resolved most of the show’s conflicts and ended all of its rivalries, and while that resulted in a satisfying finale, it doomed a potential Cobra Kai season 6. Although Cobra Kai season 6 has yet to be announced by Netflix, producers Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg have expressed their desire in continuing the world of Cobra Kai. However, despite setting up a couple of plot lines for Cobra Kai season 6, The Cobra Kai season 5 ending episodes felt like a series finale – which creates a challenge for Cobra Kai season 6.
Released less than a year after season 4, Cobra Kai season 5 did not waste any time and paid off all of the previous season’s setups right away. After losing the tournament to Cobra Kai, Daniel LaRusso found himself hopeless in the fight against Terry Silver, with the Karate Kid 3 villain reminding audiences of how easily he can get into LaRusso’s head. With no tournament involved and characters willing to fight to the death, Cobra Kai season 5 raised the stakes and felt like a culmination of everything the show had set up so far.
Cobra Kai season 5 was bigger than all previous seasons, not just regarding the number of characters, but also in terms of fight sequences and how many storylines it tackled, presenting a real issue for a Cobra Kai season 6. The lack of a tournament allowed Cobra Kai season 5 to explore different corners of the show all at once, and the result was a season that tied up most of the show’s loose ends. Some of Cobra Kai’s oldest narrative tricks were starting to become repetitive as of season 4, including but not limited to the endless rivalries, love triangles, and the dynamic between Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence. Cobra Kai season 5 was aware of that problem, and it dedicated most of its runtime to fixing it. However, while putting an end to all rivalries improves the characters and the show as a whole, it puts Cobra Kai in an almost impossible situation – how to create any conflict when everything seems to have been wrapped up.
Cobra Kai Was Built On Rivalries
As a continuation of the Karate Kid series but mainly as a sequel to the first Karate Kid, Cobra Kai was built on rivalries. The very nature of a sports show meant that Cobra Kai would set up rivalries among its best fighters combined with the personal disputes that the Karate Kid movies did so well. The rivalry between Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence served as the starting point for Cobra Kai season 1, and it has set the tone of the show ever since. Johnny and Daniel’s rivalry quickly affected the original Cobra Kai characters, and it did not take long before Miguel and Robby became enemies of their own.
The following Cobra Kai seasons not only fueled Miguel and Robby’s rivalry with the school fight and Miguel’s injury, but it also created new disputes. Sam and Tory, Hawk and Demitri, and more recently, Kenny and Anthony have all followed the same path Johnny and Daniel did almost 40 years ago, and not even the All Valley was enough to settle their differences. Despite the roles of villains like John Kreese and Terry Silver, it was in those personal conflicts that Cobra Kai was built - meaning resolving those tensions would have logically been the role given to Cobra Kai season 6 in order to end the series.
Cobra Kai Season 5 Ends All Rivalries
After a no-points fight that could have ended badly, Cobra Kai season 5 saw Robby and Miguel ready to find common ground and become friends for the first time since the beginning of Cobra Kai. Sam and Tory have also put their rivalry aside to help each other at the end of Cobra Kai season 5, and even the decade-old banter between Daniel and Johnny seems to be gone. After four seasons in which an often childish argument followed every hope for a truce between characters like Daniel and Johnny, Cobra Kai season 5 saw its characters grow and realize they could have been friends all this time.
While an argument can be made that the resolution of some of those rivalries happened way too easily - as seen with Miguel and Robby as well as with Sam and Tory in Cobra Kai - the show had postponed the end of those conflicts for far too long. Even if Cobra Kai season 5 is not meant to be the end of the show, having characters like Miguel and Robby still hating each other going into the next season would have been a mistake. However, as great as it is seeing the Cobra Kai characters evolve, the show has now written itself into a corner for Cobra Kai season 6.
Cobra Kai’s Resolved Conflicts Make Season 6’s Job Harder
As a story built on rivalries and competition, Cobra Kai season 6 has seemly nowhere to go. Granted, the Cobra Kai season 5 finale ended with Kreese’s surprising return – but that alone is not enough to sustain an entirely new season. Daniel and Johnny are now friends and co-founders of a new dojo, most of Cobra Kai’s main characters are now fighting for the same side, and all of the Cobra Kai students have left the dojo after finding out Terry Silver bought the referee during the All Valley. In other words, most of the potential story threads Cobra Kai season 6 could dive into have been resolved following the season 5 finale.
Cobra Kai season 6 could challenge that “happy ending” by sparking new conflicts among its main characters, but that would risk feeling like a regression – especially for Johnny and Daniel. Cobra Kai season 5 ended with a tease that Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang will be combined into one single philosophy with a new name, and therefore it would not make much sense, from a narrative standpoint, for Johnny and Daniel to split up again. Kreese may be a strong enough antagonist to carry an entire season of Cobra Kai, but whether that will work depends on what else Cobra Kai season 6 will have to offer.
What Could Cobra Kai Season 6 Be About?
Aside from Kreese’s return, the main plot point for Cobra Kai season 6 is the Sekai Taikai. Teased during the latter half of Cobra Kai season 5, the Sekai Taikai is a fictional global tournament in which dojos from all over the world compete for the title of number one karate philosophy. Joining the Sekai Taikai with Cobra Kai has been Terry Silver’s plan for decades, and while Silver himself is now in jail, the Cobra Kai dojo will likely fight in the tournament with sensei Kim as its leader. Johnny and Daniel’s unnamed dojo has also been selected for the Sekai Taikai, which means a potential Cobra Kai season 6 might take place mostly in another country. A global tournament in which the opponents are new characters from all over the world can help Cobra Kai season 6 create new conflicts, and it would make the next Cobra Kai season feel different from the first five. Still, relying on the tournament dynamic throughout an entire season might not work, which is why it is essential that Kreese, Terry Silver, and sensei Kim have a solid endgame plan in Cobra Kai season 6.