Maybe it's just me and my salt talking, but I hate the idea that professional deadbeat and traumatised dude Johnny Lawrence is having an accidental redemption baby at 50 years old, with a local MILF who is clearly settling for him for the sake of the kid she already has (and maybe for the fact that Johnny's buff for his age). I have always hated the trope that babies will always get an adult to mature, settle and plant roots, but the way CK has written this is offensive and childish and weak writing on many deeper levels than that.

Carmen exists SOLELY to be Johnny’s moral Geiger counter and Designated Stupid Woman, and every time she does challenge Johnny she’s conveniently and conspicuously wrong. She doesn’t want her well-adjusted, sweet, smart kid to learn karate? Well, silly Carmen doesn’t realize violent kids are bullying her son! She’ll never understand the problems young men face! Carmen wants to start dating again? Well, naive Carmen has trash taste in men and she’d obviously end up grievously hurt or worse if Johnny wasn’t her stumbling White Knight fixing her problems (by accident). Carmen wants a certified PT to help her beloved only son to walk again (post-injury due to the sport Johnny teaches him)? Well, out-of-touch limited fusspot Frau Carmen, insane people with cinder blocks and skin mags are actually the real Mans' remedy for that.

And then the salt in the wound is the formulaic forgiveness speech from Carmen to assure Johnny he was right all along....after all the fuck-ups he helped obliviously create in the first place (in previous seasons) I reached their natural bloody conclusion. Johnny has never had to have as much accountability as he should, and even when he takes the barest portion of responsibility or remedial action in the show it's treated like an absolution.

Which is the other big reason why this baby doesn't work. It is yet another accidental thing Happening To Johnny. Consider: the Crane Kick HAPPENED to Johnny, and he didn’t get over it. Kreese strangling him in public HAPPENED to Johnny, and he’s so traumatized by it that he's let it shape his entire adult life. Mr. Miyagi saving his life HAPPENED to him. All this is background unresolved trauma that CK writers have mined but in all the wrong ways, because Johnny isn't gaining perspective or changing course enough, just starting a new cycle of the same old with Carmen & Miguel rather than Shannon & Robby. (Also, Carmen would want an abortion after the Roe v. Wade repeal and the writers are cowards for skirting the issue. Realistically, poor single parent Carmen won’t be able to work with X-rays while preggers, so guess whose entire personality is getting reduced to just 'dependent Mom'?)

So it's a sad waste of characters. What we all love seeing in CK are the things our protagonist Johnny does on purpose (and note, half the time it’s to spite or to assuage Daniel). Daniel LaRusso ribbed me when we crossed paths and he saw I needed help, then against expectation proceeded to fix my car for free? Well, if he's going to rub his success in my face then I’m going to ressurrect Cobra Kai, that’ll show him! Daniel is lobbying against my dojo joining the All Valley because he thinks I’m violent, impulsive and stupid? Well, I’m going to make the effort to show him I’ve changed (even if it’s just for 15 seconds every episode) because I've realised my students mean more to me than punching him. Daniel gifted me a new car? On purpose, I am going to give it the ugliest trashiest matte paint job known to man, because I want him to know that I'm no charity case and his fancy shit and his Country Club values mean nothing to me! When Johnny acts with a purpose, things change and sometimes improve, or at least resolve--that's good effective character writing. Which is the reason the Johnny/Daniel dynamic works to spur plot, as they can't help but one-up each other and push back on what the other wants or needs to do. But clearly, the focus of the show is now off the core dynamic and onto some boring inert domestic/school drama bullshit...