Cobra Kai Season 6 Inherited Game Of Thrones' Worst Problem

Contains spoilers for "Cobra Kai" Season 6, Episode 5 — "Best of the Best"

"Cobra Kai" Season 6, Part 1 is effectively more of the same, but since "same" in the case of this particular show means "fun nostalgia combined with constantly changing allegiances and impressive roundhouse kicks," this is the opposite of a bad thing. However, things are going to take a massive detour in Part 2 and Part 3, thanks to the Sekai Taikai tournament in Barcelona ... and that might just continue a brand new problem that the final season's Part 1 introduces. Well, brand new to "Cobra Kai," that is. Fans of "Game of Thrones" are already all too familiar with the consequences of unearned fast travel.

In "Cobra Kai" Season 6, the evolving story of John Kreese (Martin Kove) seems to feature copious use of the same fast travel cheat code that enables characters to zoom around the map in impossible times during "Game of Thrones'" final season. "Cobra Kai" Season 6, Episode 1 kicks off almost immediately after the end of the Season 5 finale, with Kreese and Terry Silver still dominating the headlines. As such, Kreese is a fugitive with a well-known face. Since Terry cut him off and is now imprisoned, he shouldn't have access to the wealthy villain's private planes and other possible resources, so there's absolutely no way he can air travel — or, for that matter, even move freely out in the open. This, unfortunately, makes his many international trips during Season 6, Part 1 one of the most far-fetched things in the already very strange story of "Cobra Kai." 

To prove that Kreese has no business appearing all over the map at the pace he does, let's first look at the many locations he travels to during "Cobra Kai" Season 6, Episode 1. By the end of the season premiere, viewers find out that the evil sensei hasn't allowed his fugitive status to stop him from escaping to South Korea. Somehow, he makes his way to Master Kim's (C.S. Lee) training grounds, which are located in the middle of a forest that presumably isn't anywhere near handy public transport. There, he spends enough time to observe training for multiple occasions, recruit Kwon (Brandon H. Lee) as his latest smug karate disciple, and embark on a weird mystical cave snake quest in order to convince Master Kim to let him pick a Cobra Kai team for Sekai Taikai from the ancient teacher's student pool. 

After all this, Kreese travels back to the U.S. in order to face Tory Nichols (Peyton List) in San Fernando Valley, California ... and after that, he goes on to make his way to Barcelona, Spain. The whole travelogue happens concurrently with the Miyagi-Do team's selection process, which is implied to occur over a relatively short time span. The episodes of "Cobra Kai" Season 6, Part 1 are built around Miyagi-Do's Sekai Taikai team selection process, which seems to take place over the course of three or four days, and the two-day leadup to the final captain tournament. The characters continue conversations from previous episodes like barely any time has passed, which eliminates the potential for stealthy time skips. As such, Kreese should have just a few weeks for his globe-trotting adventures. 

The whole of Season 6, Part 1 seems to take place within a span of maybe three or four weeks. Still, let's be generous and throw in an extra month, just to be safe. 

Kreese's first trip to Korea would already cause several scheduling hiccups. Since air travel is almost certainly off-limits, the most likely way he'd get to South Korea unnoticed is on an international cargo ship. For reference, hauling cargo to South Korea by boat can take around 21 days in one direction. In addition to that, there's all the necessary land transport he'd need to get to Master Kim's supervillain training grounds after arriving in the country.

Even if we generously assume that he manages to take care of all his business there in just two days, he's still facing a 21-day trip back home before he can confront Tory. That's 44 days right there — and that's without even considering how he then gets to Barcelona. Does he attempt to travel by land to the East Coast despite being an elderly fugitive who hasn't made any attempts to alter his appearance or even his hairstyle? He'd still have to board another cargo ship to get to Europe, which would take him out of the game for a minimum of 22 days at sea. Perhaps he wants to keep things simple and just takes a ship from a California harbor. That would be Long Beach, and he'd be at sea for a whopping 35 days before reaching Barcelona.

You get the problem. While Kreese hand waves his travel methods, it sure seems his secret is that he's a card-carrying member of the "Game of Thrones" Inconsistent Travel Time Club. Hopefully, this doesn't factor further into the epic showdowns we're expecting as "Cobra Kai" Season 6 rolls toward the series finale.