Oof... yeah this is the end. I've officially made an L video.
Today's video is going to be a lot different, in that I'll be discussing a previous upload
of mine that seems to have garnered quite a lot of discussion. One of my previous shorts,
Miguel vs Mike Barnes, had polarizing opinions in the comment section. I
personally think this opinion of mine confused a lot of people,
and it's time to shed light on this. Here is Mike Barnes vs Miguel: re-explained.
Before I get into “doubling down on my bad take” as the kids would say, I'm going to first talk
about why I did these shorts in the first place and why it also presents a problem. I promise
I'm not trying to beat around the bush, just hear me out. When I did my very first short of
who would win out of Season 3 Johnny vs Season 3 Daniel, it was intended to be a one-off along
with a handful of other requests. I wanted to try something different, as fantasy match ups
had already been a thing in a non-shorts format from other creators, and I felt that, similar
to my character analysis videos, it would make sense to explain my reasoning as I usually do,
compared to having two pictures on a screen with some text, and displaying that one picture with
the “category” that the character won (or have weird matchups like Terry Silver vs
Amanda LaRusso for that matter). I thought that maybe something like this would work, because it
would be a little more original compared to just re-uploading clips or trailers from the show as
an easy way out, and I put a lot of effort in my videos – you subscribe to me for a reason,
and deserve that effort from me. However, there are some problems my shorts present.
Obviously, I have to keep the video under 60 seconds, and trying to get a point across in
that amount of time can be difficult, when I need to introduce each fighter and compliment their
strengths. I also have a speech impediment, and I naturally talk fast, so it's hard to improve on
that when I have such a short time constraint to work within. I'd like to think I'm getting better
with that in my normal videos, but that sometimes creeps out. I'm not surprised at all that my
opinions and theories in these videos (even the longer ones) can sometimes be misinterpreted,
so that could be why there was some confusion in my take of Miguel vs Mike Barnes.
Speaking of which, let's get down to business. I called that in a tournament, Miguel would be
able to easily win, and narrowly win in terms of a street fight, depending on the circumstances.
But I'm first going to explain how and why I got to this reasoning. This short was made prior to
the release of Cobra Kai Season 5 (which I will also get to on whether this changes my stance),
and since Mike Barnes had not re-appeared since the Karate Kid Part III, I had very limited
information to go off of, on where he scales as a fighter. As we all know, Robert Mark Kamen really
didn't want to write Karate Kid Part III, as the film was never initially planned and Robert wanted
to instead write a prequel focused on the very first Miyagi. When the film was in production,
John Kreese's role was significantly changed, due to Martin Kove filming Hard Time on Planet Earth,
and thus Terry Silver was born. The original incarnation of Mike Barnes was also vastly
different and more Chozen-like, motivated to enter the tournament to defeat Daniel and earn
the title the right way, instead of a karate mercenary who was focused solely on money. All
of this matters because, until we saw the in-betweens of his character explored in Season 5,
Mike Barnes was a very one dimensional character. Logistically, it's also hard to perceive his
threat level as bigger than Chozen's, considering how far the latter would go,
and Daniel being afraid to fight Mike in a tournament when having participated in an Okinawan
Death Match a few months earlier didn't make much sense. Mike Barnes has tons of experience, due to
being a national renowned fighter, and while I have used experience as a factor in the past,
it's sometimes hard to determine if that factor has any effect when we have Daniel's 1 and a half
month of karate experience beating Johnny's 5 years of experience, and Daniel's under a year
of karate experience beating Chozen's many unknown years of experience. Additionally,
the choreography of the Karate Kid movies is vastly different compared to the Cobra Kai series,
as we've seen a lot more fighting in the show compared to the movies themselves,
making it hard to also compare skill level with that in mind (and before you say anything, yes,
I know Sean Kanan was and is still a legit martial artist). All of that being said, Mike Barnes has
the advantage of experience, physical strength to a degree, and skill, in terms of this matchup. As
I mentioned in my original short video, the key difference is if he ever fought Miguel, Miguel
wouldn't fear him. Daniel was at a disadvantage because of Terry Silver's mind games, but he did
possess the ability to beat Mike. Sure, Daniel had lost fights to Mike quite easily prior to the
tournament fight, but that can also be easily said not only about Karate Kid Part I and II,
but even in Cobra Kai – Miguel's first real fight with Kyler didn't exactly end well in Season 1,
but he went on to defeat him and his gang later on in the season. This formulaic pattern of the
hero losing first but going on later to win in the final battle is even present in the Rocky movies,
notably the first 4 movies (which I count the first and second film, as we could argue that
after losing to Apollo, Rocky still went on to beat him, and I count Rocky IV in a sense,
that Rocky didn't lose to Ivan first, but rather avenged Apollo's loss and death at the hands of
Drago). Not to mention, in the ruse put together by Terry Silver and Mike Barnes, Mike attempts
to strike and grab Daniel, but Daniel easily counters this into a throw – the same technique
he does to counter Mike's strike and win the All-Valley finals match. Miguel in the finale
of Season 2 (before falling off the railing) was at his prime – he was focused, determined,
and didn't fear anyone. He wasn't afraid to fight his own friend to get back the Medal of Honor for
Miyagi-Do, and he wasn't afraid to rush in when he thought Tory was being hurt by Robby. Miguel,
compared to the other fighters of his dojo, also knew how to fight both offensively AND defensively
when need be. In my opinion, knowing these techniques and not fearing opponents put him at
an advantage moreso than Daniel had in the movie. While we don't know what exact style Mike Barnes
knew or who his teacher was (outside of Silver and Kreese), Miguel would at least be prepared
for the fundamental Cobra Kai techniques Barnes would try to throw at him. I don't think Miguel
would 3 stock Mike Barnes like Hawk did to Kyler in Season 4, but he would have a good chance of
winning. In terms of a street fight, I think Mike would make it a little more difficult for Miguel,
as there are no rules and no point system. We can't underestimate Mike's physicality by
throwing Daniel around (which Miguel also did to Robby), but I think Miguel would still have
a chance of winning. Again, not a clean sweep or not taking any damage, but Miguel could come out
victorious. What could be his downfall is showing mercy to his opponent, as we saw in Season 2,
and that's something Mike would take advantage of, but again, the outcome could favor either of them.
Now that Season 5 has come out, does that change my opinion at all? It does to an extent. For one,
I think it's safe to say that Season 5 is definitely Miguel's peak. He knows 3 different
karate styles, is focused and determined once again, and as Chozen would say, this time is
“fighting for, not against.” It's obvious that Miguel in Season 3 would not stand a chance,
and although he knew different styles in Season 4, he wasn't as focused due to his conflict with
Johnny and wanting to know who his real father is. However, Season 5 also gave us a deeper look
into Mike Barnes. Although we didn't exactly delve into the background of his martial arts,
we did see him briefly scrap with both Chozen and Johnny, and we saw that he was able to contend
with both of them before ending it in a stalemate. This puts him at least somewhat of an equal level
with not only Daniel, but Johnny and Chozen as well. This is even after him not fighting for
many years (as we also see with other characters), and rings true to what Kreese said in Season 4:
“Karate is not a phase; it's a way of life. You can leave it for a while, but it never
really leaves you.” This retroactively adds some depth to his fighting ability, and shows
that if a fight were to take place between Mike Barnes and Johnny, or Mike Barnes and Chozen,
the matches would have been fairly close. If you were to ask me who I would think win now between
Miguel as of Season 5 versus Mike Barnes in 1985, it would still be a tough match to call. Mike
would still have the experience factor (whatever that is worth), but Miguel knowing multiple styles
and possessing the ability to execute both offense and defense excellently is another factor we can't
rule out. In a tournament fight, I think Miguel would stand even more of a chance now that both
his offense and defense has improved, but a street fight would still be tough to call.
My final thoughts on this subject – does this mean my opinion or take is wrong? Yes,
depending on what you believe, and no, depending on what you believe. That's why it's called an
opinion – it's a subjective stance, not a fact. I don't claim to be the best at these
theories – I'm just a guy with opinions who happens to intrigue you. I could easily say
“this fight would end in a draw,” or “I can't call this fight,” but you, the audience, want to
know about my opinion regarding these fights, and I'd rather pick a definitive answer if possible,
than giving a cop out of a draw. I understand that I have scaled other fights differently that
sometimes conflict with my other fight opinions, but I'm also the believer that opinions can
change over time, and it's not that serious to nitpick things over characters that don't even
exist. We will never see this fight happen, but that's the fun with these theories and
discussions – it's interesting to speculate with what little information the shows and
movies give us. It's fun to see how people get so passionate about these types of discussions,
and as long as we're respecting each other and being civil, that's all I ask for. The
Miyagiverse is unrealistic in so many ways, but that's what also makes it so intriguing – the
characters are so well-written, there is a mystical feeling at times within the world,
and the story makes us want to tune in season after season. After all, people are talking about
it – and that means the showrunners have succeeded in their goal of people watching Cobra Kai.
Before I go, I want to give a quick shoutout and thanks to my partners
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Let me know what you guys think in the comments down below – who do you think would win out of
this fight? Would it be easier for me to make longer video theories instead of short ones?
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