"The third installment in a revival of an ’80s property brings back beloved characters decades later to mentor a new generation, in a story about confronting the legacy of the original franchise, all while an old villain returns to life to haunt both new and old characters," says Rafael Motamayor. "But enough about The Rise of Skywalker, because the third season of Cobra Kai, which has moved from YouTube to Netflix, feels like it was made to show the latest Star Wars movie how to do a legacy sequel right." Motamayor adds: "When The Force Awakens premiered, we saw the returns of Han, Leia and (briefly) Luke Skywalker. But rather than acting as the grand heroes fans expected them to be after defeating the Empire in Episode VI, they were mostly the same people they were in their 20s. Han was still a smuggler, and Leia was leading a rebellion. As for Luke? Well, he starts out his arc in the sequel trilogy in the same place Daniel LaRusso is at in Season 3 of Cobra Kai — having tried to spread the knowledge his master taught him and failed spectacularly when a student went bad. In Season 2 of Cobra Kai, Daniel revives Miyagi-Do Karate specifically to counter Johnny’s Cobra Kai dojo. In the process, he takes Johnny’s son, Robby, as an apprentice, and tries to 'save' him from his father’s legacy and influence. Except Robby does the opposite. In a moment of jealousy and anger, he knocks Johnny’s student Miguel over a railing, cracking his spine and putting him in a coma at the end of last season. Like Luke Skywalker after Ben Solo murders all his students, Daniel shuts down his dojo and all but goes into hiding. This season finds Daniel confronting his mistakes as a teacher, seeing his best student turn to the dark side — or joining the rival karate dojo. And like Luke, it takes some words of encouragement and a new lesson from his own sensei — or rather, an old rival trained in the same school of karate as he was — to make Daniel realize that he doesn’t have to strictly follow the book. When he travels to Okinawa, Japan, and confronts his former fight-to-the-death nemesis, Chozen, Daniel LaRusso gets his 'we are what they grow beyond' moment that Yoda gives to Luke in The Last Jedi and gets back into the fight."
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TOPICS: Cobra Kai, Netflix, Hayden Schlossberg, Jon Hurwitz, Josh Heald, Ralph Macchio, Tamlyn Tomita, William Zabka