January 15, 2025

Confidence

Confidence is good. It drives a person to achieve. Confidence without achievement can be annoying. You know that boastful guy who never does anything, annoying. Daniel had confidence. I mean even before Miyagi started training him, he picked a fight with the leader of a karate gang with zero backup. What if he got jumped by the whole gang?

I imagine after Daniel won the tounament, his ego was inflated. He may have started to annoy his sensei. “I’m the king of the valley now”. “No one can touch me”. “Where should we put my trophy in the dojo?” I wonder if Miyagi had to bring him back down to earth. “Danielson, listen to the lyrics. You're the best... around”.

Mr. Myiagi could cut the tops of standing bottles off with his side chop. He could take on a whole gang of black belts at once. But after Miyagi pointed out that the lyrics to the title song are apropos, Daniel may have been stung, leading Daniel to comment under his breath. “Why do you have so many flys buzzing around here anyway? Have you ever heard of fly paper, or is fly paper called chopsticks in Japan?”

Surely Myiagi would have started talking under his breath too, “You’ve only had like 10 lessons. Next lesson is gonna be re-roof the house.” All of this bickering must have been in the directors cut.