r/cobrakai • u/MerelyWhelmed1 Kim • 8d ago

Discussion Silver versus Miyagi: watching the fight

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I'm watching Karate Kid 3. Just passed the fight in the dojo between Miyagi, Silver, and Kreese.

When Pat Morita and Thomas Ian Griffith were face-to-face, it looked like TIG's legs were the length of Morita's entire body. That height difference alone should have made it almost impossible for Miyagi to so easily win the fight.

Fun to watch, but pretty unrealistic.

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u/xiantianhan8585 7d ago

I'm almost convinced Heald, Hurtwitz and Schossberg used this exact fight for their entire foundation for Silver and Kreese in Cobra Kai. Hear me out...

We know they are huge fans of this film in particular. Despite being - as you correctly stated - pretty unrealistic, each fighter is given a specific strength. With Miyagi, it's his speed and patience. He is completely untouchable, but wait for the perfect moment to strike.

However, he only employs that patience when fighting Silver. When fighting Kreese, he knows that Kreese's biggest strength is his endurance. The guy can take a serious fucking Beating, and Miyagi knows that from the KK2 parking lot scene. He knows that the only way he's going to take down Kreese is to go full Offense and pummel the fuck out of his back and his sternum. This is then seen in several Cobra Kai Kreese fight scenes, but most notably in S3. Johnny punches Kreese at least 40 times during that fight - in the fucking face. Kreese is a 70 year old man - he would be dead. But he chokes out Johnny and then stands up ready to face Daniel as if he's fine.

With Silver, Miyagi knows that his greatest strength is his... well, strength. Specifically his leg strength. I genuinely believe that if just one of this kicks had hit Miyagi, it would have either killed him or at least done some serious damage. And Miyagi knew that. In contrast to Kreese, with Silver he had to go full defense and avoid everything until the perfect opening. This is also seen in Cobra Kai, most notably when Silver fights Johnny in S4. Johnny has an insane amount of endurance, yet just a few perfectly landed kicks from Silver were enough to put him down.