i still think that the conclusion to daniels downward spiral in season 5 shouldnt have been everyone getting together to be there for him. the issue isnt that people were unwilling to meet daniel halfway, the issue is that daniel never expressed his trauma. he spent three seasons avoiding mentioning terry silver by name, only vaguely referencing the events of karate kid 3 without much detail. and when he does to johnny in season 4, it's off screen, which makes me sincerely doubt that daniel actually talked about how that fucked him up emotionally.
daniels trauma with silver is just a fairy tale to sam and the rest of the miyagi-do's. he tells it like a story, one where he pulled away from the dark and one where he triumphed over fear. but he leaves out the bitter, ugly truths, the way it has damaged him even after all this time, leaves out the details, the blood, the pain. the only people who were there at the time dont even really truly understand the extent of it, either, and i doubt daniel wouldve opened up to either jessica or miyagi about how badly terry silver traumatized and hurt him. no one gets it, and no one will--except, well, maybe one person.
with that, i think that it wouldve been more appropriate to tie that arc into johnnys with kreese by making johnny the person daniel actually confesses the extent of his trauma to after the events at stingrays apartment. have the emotional breakdown, or whatever, and have johnny relate, because they have similar experiences! and it tightens the narrative conceivably more because ultimately the catalyst for johnnys regression over the decades was his trauma with kreese, and daniels behavior in ck was due to his trauma with silver. they were both badly abused by these guys! they both developed massive trust issues! it also makes johnny remain significant in season 5 if it remained daniel centric in its plot points, but thematically you still tied johnny into it with kreese.
and, like, it makes sense then that this would be the true start of their friendship, because they recognize they are similar not only in their personalities, but in their trauma, in the ways they hurt, and finally, a recognition of why the other does the things they do. that recognition of "oh, you were a hurt kid too.", and like... you can tie it back to johnnys cobra kai, the refusal to stay the fuck down, because why should they let their abusers have the satisfaction of watching them give up??? and THAT revives daniels drive, and even with a miyagi-do heavy season its still a call back to the (supposed) core of the show
then, you can have the whole getting the gang back together thing for miyagi-fang or whatever lol idk i think there was a ton of missed potential there
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