Very incisive. Thanks for making this excellent deep dive into the psyche of Barnes.

2 facts... Sean actually frightened Ralph Machio during his audition for the role and backed him into a corner (without even touching him). Sean (Barnes) almost died during filming. They shot the scene of Miyagi throwing him through the doors of the Cobra Kai dojo many times and Sean tore something in his abdomen. He was afraid to tell anyone in fear of being recast. It caused him pain and when he went to the hospital they said they were unsure if he would survive, much to his horror. Luckily he did. If anyone deserved to return to Cobra Kai, Sean does.

If mike barnes returns in cobra Kai they need to give him a back story like they did Kreese on season 3

I notice that it seems like Mike Barnes gets gradually more and more hostile throughout the course of the film

It's interesting to note that whenever Terry is talking to Barnes; Barnes demeanor is much more professional and calm, he also rarely gives any reactions whenever he is asked to do something, he just nods his head. I might be looking too far into this, but no teenager or kid is that professional unless he is worried of how his parents or an adult figure will react if they don't just go along with everything.

More trivia: The actor who plays Snake originally auditioned for Mike Barnes' part

Mike Barnes is the most athletic fighter in the original Karate Kid movies, and still one of the strongest fighters in the Karate Kid/Cobra Kai universe. Would love to see him back to find out about the aftermath from the All Valley, and what he's been up to since.

I love how Mike and Silver scare Daniel to the point where Daniel forgets that he fought to the death with a guy who nearly destroyed a statue with a side kick and won

9:50 Mike: "Uh, what was that QuickSilver Rule #2 again?"

"I'm afraid. I'm afraid of him alright" Now you got to bring Barnes back for Cobra Kai.

Mike Barnes was pretty much the Clubber Lang of the Karate Kid Universe. He really put fear in Daniel and put him through his paces. I loved this villain and really hope to see him return at some point in Cobra Kai.

Mike Barnes is probably gonna show in season 4 having hatred for Terry the way Johnny hates Kreese

Notice mike barnes said "whats the matter having trouble breathing" and in cobra kai the 1st episode kyler and johnny say the same thing

mike:are you the CHAMPION?!! Daniel:YEA SO WHAT! mike:i need your title daniel:well go for it mike:i need you to compete daniel:i am not gonna be in the tournament mike:yes you are,and you are gonna sign it daniel:YOU SIGN IT MAN!! mike:come on man right now,right now LETS GO!!!! mike:we'll see about that and you can dream about me jessica:SLIMEBALL mike:slimeball? slimeball,thats cute,what? did your mother teach you that?! BEST ARGUMENT IN THE MOVIE HANDS DOWN

I’m predicting Barnes to appear in Season 5, possibly show up in the final episode of Season 4 or something

I can't imagine we don't see him in Cobra Kai. He is possibly the last big reveal left. The actor has wanted to do it from day one and still looks to be in good shape. I also think he and Tori look uncannily similar. It might be too much to have him come in as her father, but both the attitude and look is just soooo similar.

13:20-13:35 I'm crying. Not laughing crying, but crying crying since I've lived that quite a few times

This is an interesting take. I never thought of Mike Barnes as sympathetic, because I liken him to a ruthless force of nature. He is to Daniel what Ivan Drago was to Rocky Balboa. (Or for the kids, what Bane is to Batman.) The ultimate physical threat. But it's certainly something to think about. I'm a fan of that negotiation scene because it showed he wasn't just a meathead. As the first fighter in this series with some celebrity, he is career-oriented, and it would have been cool if that was explored more. But what I really love is that 9 times outta 10, Daniel would never beat him (even against Johnny he could hold his own a little bit). Larusso's victory, in Part 3 is all about winning on a technicality, and the rules/system Cobra Kai was trying to game coming back to bite them. Humility defeating arrogance is true to the series. Great video, once again :)

Also, I thought Mike Barnes showed some sympathy for Daniel during the scene where Terry Silver reveals his true intent to Daniel at the karate studio. Just before Mike punches Daniel while Terry and Kreese watch he says "You're doing this to yourself man." For Mike, it was all about the money. I don't think he wanted to hurt Daniel, maybe he didn't even dislike Daniel. But, in that moment I think Mike felt some sympathy for Daniel.

Now that was one HELL of a character analysis. Great job.

Terry Silver is a psychopath, he surely discarded Mike Barnes and it is not likely that they are in good terms. Mike may no longer be the jerk he was in KK3 and may be willing to help Daniel and Johnny, to redeem himself or just to get back at Terry and Kreese.

Can’t wait to see Mike Barnes in season 4

Mike Barnes S5: Is a completely changed man like Chozen.

It is more than possible that Mike was trained under the Silver style during his tenure of employment. Notice how when he is first introduced to Snake and Dennis, Silver says that Dennis will take care of his training. I assume this likely means Mike training for the tournament the way he does it. However, you see later in the movie that Mike is training with Kreese and Silver, and, as was pointed out in the video, Mike wearing the gi when he revealed himself to Daniel and Daniel and Silver's session. This means that Silver may have himself been training Mike during his spare time before the tournament.

i literally was just rewatching the terry silver videos and thinking: wow, i love these analysis, its so cool to have a content creator that also loves the karate kid 3 and also likes to see past the surface.... a video of this same guy about mike barnes will be awesome!

I truly believe that Mike didn’t actually wanna hurt and bully Daniel. I think he just did it for the money and his family. He just did what he was told. Anyways, Good video dude! This video is a real treat for me since I love Cobra Kai and Karate Kid! And since I think Mike Barnes is one of the best Characters in the Karate Kid Series this was awesome!! Good video man!

If Chozen sent shivers down the spines of Daniel, Mike returning would literally make him shit his pants. I would like Mike Barnes' character get an extended cameo in S4 (perhaps as the father of tory or Miguel) joining forces with kreese and silver once again and chozen to join daniel and Johnny's combined dojo. All the 6 having a final showdown would be all the ultimate moment in this entire series.

0:02 There was so little force behind those strikes from Daniel, it looked like ASMR fighting!!!! It even had a relaxing feel to me, almost!!!

I don’t know how Daniel beats Chozen in a “fight to the death”, but gets slapped around by Barnes.

I knew mike barnes was bad when he kick that girl in the stomach I knew he was evil when he broke that bonsai tree in half: Hey, Daniel? Make a wish!! Man, even I was mad at 14 seeing that shit😂😂😂💪🏿😷

In an earlier scene, Terry Silver promised John Kreese 100% ownership of Cobra Kai dojos...lol

Mike seems like a good furniture salesman

Great breakdown of Barnes. To me it would make sense that Barnes would have learned from the past. I could see him making amends with Daniel and helping Daniel and Johnny. I don't see him going back as an adversary.

I love that back drop! “Mister Miyagi’s Little Trees”

We really need flashbacks for MIke Barnes' early life prior to KK3 like we had for Kreese and Johnny Lawrence.

You do an amazing job of reading deep into these scenes with the dialogue and the performances. You pick up on things I never noticed even after multiple views over the years. Excellent video.

Excellent work as always! As many times as I've seen these movies, you still manage to uncover all these layers that make me think about them in new ways.

Cobra Kai need to explore Mike Barnes’s backstory. We know he’s Karate’s bad boy, but we don’t know why, or how? Why was he so volatile? Where did he come from? Did he have an abusive upbringing? Did he get his 50% ownership despite losing? So many questions need to be answered. Cobra Kai are exploring other characters and their past, so they definitely have to do this with Mike Barnes.

Im scared to think of what Terry did to mike, considering all Johnny did was lose the tournament and kreese tried to kill him for that, and Mike failed terrys revenge plan and attempt to open cobra kai dojos. I think that they might reveal what he did in season 4

I love it when you dress the part and have the right matching background great editing

Johnny was a bully. Mike was pure evil.

Finally my bro. This is awesome

I think Mike Barnes is like a Savage and a beast who thinks rage is the best way to fight

Sean Kanan himself said it’s likely Mike has a background in street fighting. I would say he’s calmed down somewhat and is much more world weary by now, but still has the ‘Eye of the Tiger’. He lost the tournament, but he’s still savage and much more formidable fighter than Snake and that other fella. So, it’s possible Terry kept him around. If not, Mike will get word of the war between Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do and come back to serve as a mercenary to Kreese and Terry once again. I’m uncertain if he’d hold a grudge against Daniel, but he’d certainly want a rematch to prove himself the better fighter.

I'd never given it this much thought before, but would love to see Mike Barnes return after Terry Silver in Cobra Kai and potentially argue about how Terry ruined Barnes and his family by making him pay back what he owed from failing to beat Daniel. I'd almost been thinking that Mike would return to sway the battle in Kreese and Silver's favour against Daniel and Johnny with maybe Chozen returning to aid Daniel and even it up, but could definitely now see Mike making amends with Daniel and talking about how Silver manipulated them both.

Let's hopefully see if Mike Barnes comes to Cobra Kai season 4

Wow watching these videos just makes me realize how good and in-depth the entire franchise truly is

Prediction: Mike Barnes will be the key to defeating Kreese’s Cobra Kai (with Terry Silver) in either season 4 or in a future season. Mike could join Cobra Kai initially but will change sides to Daniel and Johnny’s Miyagi-Fang / Miyagi-Do during the tournament.

He could help Johnny and Daniel not because he likes them but to get revenge on John Kreese and mainly Terry silver. I also think Terry might do the same thing to maybe Miguel as what he did to Daniel. He could hire a skilled karate fighter and manipulate him and pay him to taunt Miguel throughout the series.

I agree Barnes was screwed over on many levels by Silver... good analysis.

Watching karate kid 3 I was completely blind I didn’t notice any of this at all, great video

Thank you everyone for watching and be sure to check out my one-on-one interview with Sean Kanan! kzfaq.info/get/bejne/eq-mjJCD1dXJqH0.html

Ok, so Terry buys the new Dojo’s and tells Kreese they’re his 100%. Then he promises 50% to Mike, thereby giving up what he already promised Kreese. But I suppose you could argue that it was possibly his own stake in the business? Sure. But then he says to Miyagi “Hell, I might even teach for free!!” thereby insinuating that he has little to no regard for his deal with Mike, money wise. Terry is mentally all over the place whilst simultaneously being so exacting, so cold and very calculating.

Mike was not a bully, just a hired gun for Silver.

Those fight scenes in the 80s make us appreciate how much MMA has evolved over the ages.

I enjoy your Karate Kid / Cobra Kai videos. You add so much depth and understanding to the source material👍🏿

thanks Ken great videos, please make more!!

If Mike Barnes comes back in Cobra Kai. Daniel and Johnny will be in real trouble, he could probably take both of them down at the same time in a street fight. He's the national champion, he's bigger, stronger, meaner, more aggressive, more ruthless than Johnny and he stomped Daniels ass in KK3. That's if he's not already in jail in Cobra Kai.

Fantastic insight!!! SO MANY things that I have never realized or given much thought to.

As always, excellent work! You brought up some very good, interesting points about Mike Barnes. Hopefully, he's brought back. I'd love to see this character again in the Cobra Kai verse!

I do not think Mike was poor. 1) If he is Karates Bad boy, that means he is winning a lot of tournaments which means, 2) He must have $$ to keep going around entering said tournaments. And Karate is not cheap. I remember when I was going to classes in the 90's it cost around $70-$80 a month. 3) He is well spoken and knows business, which tells me that his father is probably in corporate. He literally out negotiates Terry and is willing to walk away unless he gets 50%

We never saw Mike's real skills he was only playing with Daniel all the movie, and you forgot to mention that he's a professional athlete karate champion with 10th Dan and the most tough, that is how hes canon profile describe him. Good vídeo 👍

This was great!

This is an excellent examination of the character Mike Barnes. You clearly did prior investigation and thoroughly examined his character on a professional level. Wonderful work!

Here is how i would re write Karate Kid 3 So, the first part would remain the same. Kreese and Silver will still want revenge, and Barnes will still be hired. Barnes still tries and forces Daniel to sign up for the tournament. Now here is where the changes come to place. After the staged fight, we get a scene where Daniel finds out that the rule where Daniel only has to fight in the final match is removed due to being an unfair advantage to the defending champion. Because of this, daniel tries to go to Miyagi and begs him to train him one more time, but refuses again. So, he joins Cobra Kai The Cobra Kai stuff remains similar, but one little change to the scene where Silver evil laughs while Daniel keeps trying to break the wooden planks. Instead of him laughing evilly, we go further away to see Mike Barnes there hanging out in the storage room. Here is where Silver talks to him about the plan at the tournament. It goes something like. Barnes: How’s LaRusso doing? Silver: He’s still trying to break the planks like a weakling. Barnes: Heh, good Silver: So, about the tournament, heres the plan... Then it just cuts to the next scene, raising suspense. The rest of the Cobra Kai stuff remains pretty much the same When Daniel tries to tell Silver than he quit, and after Kreese jump scares him, when Barnes tries to attack Daniel, he blocks Barnes’ punch and moves out of the way. The two of them get into a real fight. The fight last around 20 seconds. Kreese and Silver are cheering on Barnes while Daniel tries to defend himself similar to what he did against johnny in KK1. And he’s winning at first, he lands a few good hits on Barnes. But this angers Barnes even more, so he goes full tryhard on Daniel and right before he can land a finishing blow, Mr Miyagi comes into the dojo, and takes down Barnes, but this time, Barnes is knocked fully unconscious. The fight between Kreese and Silver, and Mr Miyagi remains the same. Except Daniel tries to interfere and fight Silver along side Miyagi. But he tells him Mr Miyagi: Stand back Daniel-san. Too dangerous for you The training montage before the tournament lasts longer. Instead of only learning kata, Daniel also learns some more advanced offense and perfects the drum technique from the previous movie. At the tournament, Daniel and Mr Miyagi, and Kreese, Silver, and Barnes have a little interaction. But its just a few menacing stares they give to each other. There is a montage where Daniel and Barnes move up the ranks, beating every opponent they come across. Then in the semis, Barnes beats Orshan, and Daniel beats Dempsey, and its time for the finals: Daniel vs Barnes Before the fight, Silver reminds Barnes about the plan to make Daniel suffer. He tells him this previously in the movie, but this is where we (the audience) first hears it. At the start of the fight, Barnes gets too cocky, which allows Daniel to hit a good hit and land the first point. Barnes realizes Daniel is gonna be a stubborn target. He keeps the score 1-1 for the rest of the 3 minutes. Daniel tries many different types of defenses and offenses but Barnes blocks them all. This makes Barnes a much scarier and more skilled opponent than he appears in the actual movie. At the sudden death round, it lasts a bit longer. Barnes does get confused about the Kata, but manages to block it, and Daniel is forced to use the Drum technique to weaken Barnes. Which allows him to throw a spinning heal kick to the stomach, winning the tournament 2-1. What do you guys think of this version of Karate Kid 3?

I've often wondered what kreese and silver said/did to mike after the tournament given that the previous year kreese attacked Johnny when the stakes were much lower. It seems unlikely mike would be on good terms with kreese and silver.

Barnes is such a cruel boy. He is the Darth Maul of the Karate Kid Trilogy imo

Love the analysis!

I really, truly dig your style and thoughts, Ken! :-) Really good content here. I even like your tonality/voice, lol! It’s very calming to listen to :-) You bring forth so many great character-analysis, and makes me even more hyped for the future of Terry and Barnes. Great job here, and thanks for your vids! :-)

I think it would be super interesting for Mike to come back and actually manipulate Terry Silver in a similar way to how Terry manipulates him. I think he'd definitely want to get his revenge on Terry especially since money was involved.

YESSIR! Hype before I even watch this one, let's go!

great video, thanks for posting

mike isnt really bad.,.,i hope he turns good like chozen did.,.,i hope u make a vid of how terry became so menacing and evil.,..,when he was afraid and insecure in vietnam.,.,.,and still., no one has ever mentioned the demonic statue behind him when he is taking the bubble bath

Incredible analysis Ken Cole. Your interpretive lenses are sharp! But you've gotta keep your District Attorney cousin Willy Cole in LA away from Terry Silver!

Your delivery is awesome, and your analysis is spot on!! All these videos are great! I Expect your channel to get huge! Keep up the great content!

Great analysis

Tory could be a combination of Mike and Julie. Tory could perform questionable actions for $$$ to pay for her family, which is aligned to the philosophy of only winning matters. Also, would like to see Mike trying to get revenge.

Well... I wasn’t excited for a potential return of Mike until I watched THIS. Mike just struck me as a coked out violent lunatic meant to be like Johnny without any of the little moments of nuance. And now I see... he DID have some more subtle character moments I didn’t notice. I’d be in favor of him going more the same path as Chozen.

Nice analysis and production. Especially appreciated the Terry Silver vids. Keep up the good work.

Great breakdown

The irony of your story is the actor who played Mike didn't want the role cause he was a big fan of the Karate Kid and he didn't want to play the heel.

Imagine if after training in karate all his life since KK3, Barnes comes back more skilled than everyone, and has a massive grudge against everyone, wanting to violently beat up and maim everyone, and can only be stopped by Miyagi Do, Eagle Fang and cobra kai all uniting against him!!!!

Great video ken cant wait for season 4 hope theres more to come terry back is mike and dutch comming back also outstanding cobra kia stay safe and well ken 👍👍👊

I LOVE these videos. Great narration

It will be interesting to find out a backstory of sorts on Mike Barnes when he (hopefully) returns. That and if he'll eventually reform, if he hasn't already, even if him still being bad (for now at least) will work better for the storyline. Though he was still a mere hired gun, and not a true, homegrown Cobra Kai like Johnny & his friends was though.

Barnes has been living all these years knowing that Danny kicked his ass; he's not likely to have coped with that well over the years.

Great video

That was a very enjoyable video from you. I greatly enjoyed watching it.

Mike Barnes’ accomplishments are pretty much his own. At least during the movie, because Terry Silver said that Mike would be trained by Snake and Dennis, two guys who got their asses handed to them by Daniel and Jessica. Clearly Mike was already a much better fighter than them.

Here's my backstory on Mike Barnes: Say hello to ,Mike Barnes SR! Let’s make him is the Joe Jackson (Michael Jackson’s dad) of Martial Arts. This means he's physically/mentally abusive, while being an intense slavedriver. So , Mike Sr was a failed fighter. He notices his son has a natural aptitude for karate, so he signs him up for lessons at a young age. He pushes his son to the bone each training session. He expects nothing but perfection , and constantly pushes his son to always fight brutal to injure his opponent, telling him “if you hurt him badly , he can’t continue” . He signs him up for various tournaments , to gain notoriety and get better and better. (Under all that, is a man wanting his son to succeed where he didn’t) All this pressure and influence from his father leads Mike Barnes to become the angry brutal fighter we come to see later.

Brilliant Analysis

This channel is way too underrated. This content and karate kid analysis is so good

Amazing! In a interview with cobra kai theory, sean kannan talked about how mike barnes character was heavily infulenced by Mike Tyson attitude, this makes a lot of sense giving the fact that not only John Avildsen Also directed Rocy And Rocky 5 but also Robert Mark Kamen wrote the script of Gladiator(1929) Another movie about boxing. As we Know Tyson was very mouthy, something that came for previus boxers, even the great Muhammad Ali. And a curiious fact is that Ali did that because and advice from George Wagner the responsable for turning pro wrestling into a scripted form of entretanamient instead of a legit figth sport, being basically the first heel. I always have seen mike as that, a heel. His whole karate bad boy thing is a very heel thing, you see the heel chractaer its not only a wrestling thing, you also see it in MMA Trashtalk, Connor Mcgregor or colby covington. So for mike maybe that was just his character maybe he was a good kid outside of that, so maybe thng like punching jessica, the rape threat and breaking the bonsai are just things he know that will make daniel scared of him but also hate him. Cause thats what heels do make you hate them. I think at first he was passioned about karate but now he created this heel character to make more money ( probably because he is very poor and has a shity house life) he forgot about living karate as a passion and now its only a business. But maybe in cobra kai he gets passionated about karate again. A interesting idea about what happened after karate kid 3 is that terry offered him a job as his personal mercenary, and gave him militar training being the only way to pay from his failure in the tournament.

Mike Barnes is the young, Caucasian, version of Clubber Lang from Rocky 3. He didn't actually 'hate' Daniel or 'like' Terry for that matter. He just wanted what Terry had.....money, cars, a mansion, and a high power lifestyle. Daniel was just the pinyata he had to break in order to get to the sweet stuff. That's all. This wasn't personal for him, it was all business.

Seeing this video just got me ultra-hyped for the next season of Cobra Kai. I want it NOW!!!

Thanks for your very intense point of view, you are really expanding my views of the Karate kid trilogy besides it all makes sence again THANK YOU

The only way I'd believe that Terry is more evil than Kreese is if Terry revealed in Season 4 that he had Mike trapped in a dungeon for all this time and now deploys him as a weapon. Mike, however, would be a murderous psycho because of this.

This is a great video except I don’t think mike is a bully

Great work Ken

Another very cool video, Ken! I really enjoy your character analysis videos. By the way, I hope you have a happy birthday.