The Karate Kid franchise needs to stop doing this for its next karate kid

41 years, six movies, and two TV series (one animated)—that's The Karate Kid franchise for you. Who knew that the loser of the original film, Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), would become the winner of this franchise? Because Cobra Kai's season one is sitting with a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score. The recently released Karate Kid: Legends is 57% approved. That's not fresh.

Legends is the sixth installment in the film series and brings back Jackie Chan, Ralph Macchio, and that old trope it began with. A mother moves to a new place with her son, where her son encounters a bully (usually a boyfriend of a girl he is talking to), which leads to a tournament where this boy proves himself and earns the respect of his opponent.

Seriously, stop!

I mean, that's literally a trope the franchise has been using whenever it's introducing a new Karate Kid, except for Julie Pierce, played by Hilary Swank in The Next Karate Kid (1994).

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It all began with Ralph Macchio-led The Karate Kid

It was 1984 when the series began. Ralph Macchio was about to be introduced as the character who would become synonymous with his name, Daniel LaRusso. Randee Heller plays his mother in The Karate Kid, and they move from New Jersey to California.

He then meets Ali Mills (Elisabeth Shue), which her ex-boyfriend Johnny Lawrence doesn't like. This leads to a confrontation and prompts LaRusso to ask for the original sensei of the franchise, whose influence can still be felt, Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita), after he saves LaRusso.

This eventually ends up with Lawrence and LaRusso fighting in a tournament and the latter defeating the former using the infamous Crane technique. That earns LaRusso Lawrence's respect.

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And then it happened again with Jaden Smith-led The Karate Kid

A remake came, which was basically a new film wrapping up the similar trope. Though it's understandable, as this was a remake. So Jaden Smith plays Dre Parker in the 2010s The Karate Kid remake, where he moves with his mom, Sherry (Taraji P. Henson). This time the mother-son pair moves from the United States to China.

Then Dre meets Meiying (Wenwen Han), and this attracts the attention of Cheng (Zhenwei Wang). Events basically turn out the same, but Dre's mentor is Mr. Han (Jackie Chan). He trains the boy after saving him.

Finally, there's a tournament where Dre and Cheng fight, and the former uses the Snake technique to defeat the latter, and Dre earns his opponent's respect. Though fans should know it was kung fu in this remake and not karate.

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And here we are with it in Karate Kid: Legends, again

We can say that Karate Kid: Legends is a mashup of the previous films, as Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Han are teaching the new prodigy here. Interestingly, the prodigy this time is Mr. Han's nephew, Li Fong (Ben Wang). But he isn't safe from being moved to another city with his mother, who Ming-Na Wen is portraying.

So Li meets Mia Lipani (Sadie Stanley), and as this love story is about to begin, the film's version of Johnny Lawrence, Conor Day (Aramis Knight), is standing between them. This time, there's no new mentor, as legends are already there. So they train him.

Now there's a tournament, and this time Li doesn't have a Crane or a Snake technique but a flying kick technique, which he uses to defeat Conor. Do you want to guess what happens next?

Yeah, Li earned Conor's respect!

In the end, we just hope that the next karate kid in The Karate Kid franchise doesn't simply have to move to a different country, meet a girl, get into a feud with her ex, and defeat him in a tournament to earn that respect.

Also, the fact that Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio are together in the film makes the 2010 remake canon to the franchise. So we want to take back that part from the article that "it's understandable as this was a remake." Now it's not understandable.

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