WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Cobra Kai Season 6, Part 2.

Cobra Kai is a Netflix title I’ve had a love-hate relationship with since its debut in 2018, initially on YouTube Red.

In the time since then, I’ve binge watched each season as it came out, raising eyebrows over the writers’ choice in direction in expanding the 40-year-old The Karate Kid franchise, and also in its barely passable attempts at writing fleshed out Asian and Asian American characters.

Season 6 is the final one of the series, and it’s being drawn out into three parts, each containing five episodes. Having since watched Part 2 after being released last Friday, I feel I’ve turned a corner from critical observation to full-on outrage.

Already, it was face palm worthy bewildering that the last episode just had to end with yet another brawl, and at the Sekai Taikai of all places (which, for those who don’t know, is a multi-day international tournament that can be best described as a very theatrical, all-karate Olympics). But to see some of the worst treatments and plot decisions made of the Asian and Asian American characters to date is what is really angering me.

After teasing last season that Chozen (Yuji Okumoto) has feelings for Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita) and taking off for her during Part 1 of this season, we instead see himself return in a drunken rage, after finding out that she’s with someone else. I cannot express enough my disappointment over that realization, because what was the point then of setting that up if that was how it was going to turn out? Also, what is it with the Asian characters in The Karate Kid franchise not able to find nor have long-lasting love? Instead, two episodes later, Chozen is hooking up with Cobra Kai instructor Kim Da-Eun (Alicia Hannah-Kim) for some reason, only for them to agree the following morning to let it be water under the bridge.

I also was not thrilled with how Part 2 ended, with the accidental yet fatal self stabbing of Cobra Kai member, Kwon Jae-Sung (Brandon H. Lee), rendering the brawl to a deafening halt. It may not have been a huge shocker that someone was going to get killed. It was imminent the minute John Kreese (Martin Kove) revealed the knife he carries on his person, a la Chekhov’s gun (or knife, in this case), and even more so that history would repeat, after Daniel (Ralph Macchio) learned that an opponent of Mr. Miyagi was killed the year he competed in the Sekai Taikai.

As tragic and undoubtedly pointless of a death it was, it didn’t feel super impactful, especially since Kwon was introduced during Part 1 of the season. We as an audience haven’t gotten to learn much about him other than the fact that he’s very cocky. Had the creators of the show wanted a more emotional death, then they should have killed off a character we’ve known for a lot longer than that. The fact that it was an Asian character in particular that got thrown under the bus makes it incredibly unsettling. Why does it feel like that even when it might not even be intentional, the Asian characters continue to get the short end of the stick?

My biggest outrage of all comes at the beginning of that last episode, when Daniel has a dream where he fights a much younger Mr. Miyagi (Brian Takahashi) in the Sekai Taikai, much to the former’s horror. It was fascinating to see someone else take on the mantle of Mr. Miyagi, even if it was just for a scene. But just as Daniel is about to be rendered unconscious, Takahashi disappears and in his place is the AI-generated face and voice of the late Pat Morita as Mr. Miyagi once more, and… just… WHY?!

AI, a major talking point of our time, is a fine example of how just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Morita died back in 2005, and to see him be brought to life in such a way was really upsetting to see, even if it was a dream and even if it was for a few seconds. While yes, the show creators have explained how they did receive permission from both his estate and from one of his family members to do this, I still didn’t see the point, especially when he was being shown in such a negative light.

I feel that my brother put it best in that the creators should have done what J.J. Abrams had done in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, when Obi-Wan Kenobi speaks to Rey through the Force. A voice clip of the late Sir Alec Guinness as the character saying “afraid” and shortening it to “Rey” is all it took to bring him back, just for a second. I find it very hard to believe that there isn’t enough audio out there of Morita as Mr. Miyagi that could have been edited in a way to make for a much more effective voice-over, and without the use of AI. Instead, this really feels like a technical manipulation of the actor’s memory — an actor whose work is a staple in the growing body of Asian Americans in film.

Unrequited love, an uncalled for death, and a very questionable tribute to a prominent Asian American actor are what has me livid about this part of this season of Cobra Kai. Folks might be quick to defend it in that the show is not written to be like Asian American-centric martial arts shows on Netflix that have popped up since then like Warrior, Wu Assassins, and The Brothers Sun (all of which have, sadly, been canceled or have ended). But as I’ve been saying all this time, if you’re going to have a franchise center around an Asian martial art, then you better have Asian characters involved, and more than just the far from par ways that we’ve seen in this series, and especially in this season.

I hold my breath for what’s to come — for Asian/Asian American representation and otherwise — when Cobra Kai returns for the last time this February.

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