Part 3 of Cobra Kai's farewell season is all about closure and looking to the future. Part 2 excelled at presenting Miyagi-Do's senseis and students in the midst of various personal strife and ending in a plot-twisting tragedy. But, moving into the final episodes of the show, Cobra Kai moves away from its larger ensemble cast to focus on a few primary characters. After all, due to Miyagi-Do's show of group unity toward the end of Part 2, the remaining anguish and drama have been replaced with a confident walk to the finish line. As it should, Johnny and Daniel's friendship and individual arcs rest at the center of the season.
Johnny has come a long way since he was cursing his teenage self for losing to Daniel at the All-Valley Championship in 1984. The Johnny that takes center stage in Cobra Kai's last slew of episodes is a man who has shed the toxic skin of the way of the fist and embraced the balance of offensive and defensive maneuvers in karate while also learning how to gain balance in his everyday life, as shown by the family he has built with Robby, Miguel, Carmen, and Rosa, as well as his newborn daughter. He has found a chosen family with Daniel and the LaRusso family as well, and for the first time, everything in Johnny's life appears to be finally moving in a completely positive direction. Cobra Kai has no interest in stripping any of that away from him. Instead, Cobra Kai encourages Johnny's around-the-corner happy ending by embracing who this character has become and even giving his life a full circle moment when the Sekai Taikai offers one final plot twist by making the senseis of the final remaining dojos take the mat.
But Johnny is not the only one who has undergone character development, and Cobra Kai is more than aware of that during Daniel's final arc. Throughout Cobra Kai, Johnny and Daniel have grown together and challenged each other to see the other's perspective. While Johnny valued offense, Daniel valued defense, and each season forced the other to come face to face with the question of whether or not the other's style was truly wrong. From past experience, both Daniel and Johnny were hurt by Cobra Kai's original methods, but while Daniel was able to see the problems in its dangerous ideologies and find balance again with Mr. Miyagi, Johnny had no such luck and found himself holding on to Kreese's belief in "No Mercy," for decades. Yet, as Cobra Kai came to the end of its run, both Daniel and Johnny confirmed they had seen the benefits and positives in each other's style, as they created a style of karate that shows the best of both.
Johnny's take on offensive karate steps away from the mentally dangerous approach, choosing instead to focus on the best parts that help influence a person's strength and confidence without encouraging the worst in them to take over. Meanwhile, Daniel's added defensive balance strategies offer a sense of helping students center themselves on the mat and in life. Daniel and Johnny's influence on each other may have been visible before, but perhaps no more than in Cobra Kai's finale episodes.
Cobra Kai offers multiple plot twists in its last episodes, but the massive change to the final line-up of the Sekai Taikai may be the most significant of all. With Tory's Cobra Kai team no longer participating, that leaves Tory as the only member left, except, a devastating injury for Robby and Sam's decision to choose not to fight Tory makes it appear that Miyagi-Do is truly out of the competition, but it is not that easy to get rid of them. Given their history as Cobra Kai members, Johnny and Miguel step up as Cobra Kai's respective sensei and male champions, which puts Johnny and Daniel's group back in the game, even if most of them are sitting out. When Johnny goes on the mat to compete, he can always go all-in on Cobra Kai, just as he had as a teenager and plenty of his adult fighting life. Offense is what he knows best, after all. But, Daniel's influence is integral to him here, as a previous conversation allows Johnny to recall that Daniel's crane kick that had defeated him in 1984 had only worked because Johnny had rushed head first into it while Daniel held back and waited. Johnny, learning from his past mistakes, shows his own personal growth by following Daniel's example, sitting back, letting his opponent come to him, and, in the end, becoming a world champion.
However, the series finale is also a huge moment to acknowledge Daniel's growth as well. When Cobra Kai began, Daniel had no respect for Cobra Kai and his hatred was justified. Kreese and Terry Silver had ruined Daniel's view of the dojo's values by constantly being willing to cheat and cause physical, mental, and emotional pain. Why would Daniel ever see the good in a dojo that only found its joy in causing hurt? However, the definition of Cobra Kai changed once Johnny once again became the face of it in the show's final episodes. Under Johnny, Cobra Kai would not be the same toxic and dangerous dojo it once was. Daniel knew that, and respected Johnny's desire to finish the competition while simultaneously embracing that Miyagi-Do's understanding was knowing that it was perfectly okay not to want to fight. In the final episodes, Daniel's growth is shown more than said when Daniel comes to the final Sekai Taikai competition dressed, alongside all of the students, in Cobra Kai's gi, which may be the show's most unexpected moment, but it works beautifully in tandem with showing the growth of the character.
As for the rest of the main characters, Cobra Kai focuses primarily on Miguel, Sam, Robby, and Tory as the central figures. Miguel's reaching of the male champion is an emotional fight filled with flashbacks of showing his growth as a fighter and overcoming personal hurdles. Tory's victory is a celebratory moment for a character who has undergone so much strife and pain and who has grown so much in the process. Meanwhile, although Sam and Robby ultimately do not finish the fight, they are still offered significant conclusions, as all four characters are given a happy ending that audiences can cheer for. Otherwise, Eli and Demetri are not given the same focus, as their issues were mostly dealt with during Part 2, and Part 3 only really focuses on them during a moment helping Robby train for an upcoming fight and when revealing where they will be attending college. The rest of the Miyagi-Do students take a backseat in the final episodes. They do not have much to do other than stand in the background, but the main part of their storylines was already dealt with during Part 2, and that offered them enough closure where Part 3 had no need to expand on it. Carmen, Amanda, and Chozen are also offered moments of closure that help bring their stories to an end.
Cobra Kai took advantage of its screen time to show the in-depth impact that Cobra Kai's teachings had on both Johnny and Daniel and how it helped influence their views on the world. It showed the strive Johnny had to force himself to be a better person and be a better father. Cobra Kai's characters, most specifically Miguel, Robby, Eli, and Tory, fall into the depths of Cobra Kai's most dangerous pitfalls, only to see them break the cycle of violence and rise from the ashes as people who value the understanding of a more balanced offensive fighting style and life approach. In the end, this was a series that began with a purpose and never lost sight of it, bringing its story to a close in a way that allowed every character arc to be mapped out over the course of six seasons that highlights the impacts that both Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do can have on karate students when they learn both methods. The conclusion of having both Johnny and Daniel continue to teach shared students both styles to ensure they learn the most positive parts of both styles to become the best versions of themselves allows their legacy to live on. After all, Cobra Kai never dies.