Hoo-boy, where to begin in Cobra Kai? This can also count as Poor Communication Kills and My God, What Have I Done?.
open/close all folders
In General
- Throughout the series, Daniel's main goal is to stop Cobra Kai's resurrection and keep the Valley's youth from being corrupted by the dojo's philosophy as he and others were back in the 1980s. However, partly thanks to several missteps on his part, not only is Cobra Kai still around, but by Season 5, it's even more powerful than it was back in the 1980s as the dojo has gone from just one studio to an entire franchise.
Season 1
- Daniel's Condescending Compassion to Johnny when he shows up at the dealership, and especially his comment that everyone is better off without Cobra Kai, is what inspires Johnny to reopen the dojo in the first place.
- Sam's failure to report Yasmine's hit-and-run also contributes, since Johnny seeing Sam and Daniel together at the dealership is the last straw for Johnny making that decision.
- Amanda's understandable anxiety about her daughter's social status causes her to get careless about what kind of friends Sam is making. Their cruelty towards many students, including Aisha and Miguel, helps give rise to a new generation of Cobra Kai, not to mention the hit and run accident that eventually prompts Johnny to reopen Cobra Kai.
- Blatt tries to dissuade the students from cyber-bullying by telling them how a student's mother called her about her son getting mocked for his facial scar. Since she's obviously talking about Eli, he just gets mocked even more. In Season 2's Cerebus Retcon of the incident, we see his mother's phone call prompted the announcement, while Eli tearfully begs her not to because he knows full well it will only make things worse.
- Johnny trains Miguel for a few months and unintentionally boosts Miguel's confidence too high and too fast. Despite getting in a solid kick in on Kyler, Miguel's first fight with Kyler and his goons results in him getting beaten unconscious.
- In an attempt to drive Cobra Kai out of business, Daniel launches a Batman Gambit involving Armand Zakarian, the owner of the strip mall where Cobra Kai is located. At the end, Cobra Kai faces higher rent but so do all the other business owners on that strip mall. Amanda rightfully calls him out on this disregard for collateral damage. This prompts Daniel to visit the grave of Mr. Miyagi to regain balance in his life.
- Johnny gives Miguel his gi after his successful defense against the bullies and gives him a fatherly hug to him. Robby, about to make amends with his father, sees this and feels like he was being replaced. This led to the silent animosity towards Miguel.
- Daniel's abrasiveness towards Johnny during the committee meeting only makes Johnny look more sympathetic, and Cobra Kai gets back in the tournament.
- Daniel and Johnny inadvertently ruin Sam and Miguel's relationship by failing to let go of their grudge with each other and passing their own prejudices down to the next generation, while Sam and Miguel's mistakes exacerbate the problem:
- Daniel's blanket description of Cobra Kai as a Thug Dojo, and warning Sam to avoid anyone associated with it, causes Sam to hide her relationship with Miguel from him for fear that he will dislike Miguel without giving him a chance.
- Johnny gives Miguel a biased account of the events of the first movie and warns him never to trust a LaRusso, making Miguel paranoid about the possibility of Sam cheating on him based on her innocuous interactions with Robby.
- Miguel and Sam both fail to properly communicate these issues to each other, leading Sam to feel that Miguel is becoming more aloof and aggressive with her (playing into Daniel's stereotypes about Cobra Kai) and increasing Miguel's insecurities.
- Hawk advises Miguel to pull an "alpha move" and simply call around to Sam's house and introduce himself to Daniel. This would have been bad advice even if it had worked the way he had planned, since Sam would most likely not have appreciated him showing up uninvited, but it ends up causing Miguel to see Robby eating with the LaRussos, making him fear that Sam will leave him for Robby. This both increases Miguel's relationship insecurities and fuels his resentment of Robby.
- Amanda grounds her daughter on the solid grounds that she was involved in the hit-and-run. This includes being cut off from all social media and communications, meaning she can't tell Miguel why she doesn't show up for the canyon party. Already feeling hurt, this causes Miguel to get suspicious of her even more. Had Amanda at least allowed Sam to message Miguel that she was grounded and not allowed any outside communication, this would've been avoided entirely.
- Miguel's decision to drink his pain away impairs his judgement to the point that he completely overreacts to Sam showing up with Robby and starts a fight with him.
- Sam and Robby showing up late to the party together, with Robby holding her hand to help her down the hill, confirms in Miguel's eyes that she is cheating on him. Miguel reacts violently, ending his and Sam's relationship and increasing the resentment between the two boys to the point that their showdown at the All Valley becomes much less sporting than intended.
- Johnny fails to understand the inherent flaws in Cobra Kai's philosophy, and assumes that Kreese was the root of all the dojo's problems. As a result, he turns his own students into exactly the sort of Thug Dojo that they were when he was a student, in particular causing Hawk and Miguel to turn into jerks who fight dirty in the All Valley.
Season 2
- Johnny allows himself to be manipulated by Kreese into giving him a second chance, which just allows him to corrupt his students and steal his dojo.
- Daniel makes several big mistakes in opening Miyagi-Do:
- In his YouTube commercial, Daniel could've easily promoted his dojo without doing anything to antagonize Cobra Kai. Instead, he adds a few thinly veiled insults towards them and it angers both Johnny and the students, leading to them branding him an enemy.
- Daniel promises Amanda that he'll be able to balance his time between the dojo and their business. However, he ends up committing too much time to the dojo, and his failure to show up to a meeting with Anoush after Anoush has been beaten up at the dealership by Johnny is the final straw for the former, who quits to join Daniel's rival Tom Cole, costing Daniel one of his most loyal employees.
- Daniel successfully teaches his students how to fight and defend themselves; he does not, however, properly teach them the importance of solving problems without violence, of pacifism. The school brawl would not have ended the way it did had Robby been properly disciplined to control his emotions and respond properly to Miguel's mercy.
- Johnny visiting a dying Tommy, while understandable and even admirable, allows Kreese the time he needs to worm his way into the Cobra Kai students' heads.
- Robby lies to Sam and the LaRussos about Miguel having returned Mr. Miyagi's Medal of Honor, hiding it in the dojo for Demetri to find. This intensifies the rivalry between the students, as the Miyagi-Dos have no idea that a Cobra Kai was responsible for returning it. Had he told them the truth, the tensions would have lessened. It also serves to drive Sam back into Miguel's arms when she finds out, which is exactly what Robby was trying to avoid.
- Moon's Wild Teen Party in "Pulpo" is full of these:
- Moon deciding to throw the party in the first place is quite possibly the dumbest decision of the season. She invites students from both dojos, that have extremely bad blood with each other, to her digs, without telling members of either dojo that the others will be there, while serving copious amounts of alcohol in an attempt to make peace. Naturally, Alcohol-Induced Idiocy runs riot, in a rare case where this is fueled by the one supplying rather than consuming the booze.
- Demetri, fed up of Hawk's antagonizing him despite his honest attempt to rekindle their friendship, decides to out all of his secrets, including his past as a bed-wetter, to everyone at the party. This gives Hawk even more reasons to want to kick his ass, and increases the tensions between the two dojos, which nearly causes a fight to break out right there and then if not for the timely intervention of the police and contributes to the brawl that erupts at school the following Monday.
- Sam drunkenly kisses Miguel, and while both regret it immediately, Tory witnesses it from a window and decides to attack Sam at school for revenge, which is what kicks off the brawl that leads to Miguel's life-threatening injury.
- After the police arrives, Robby agrees to take a drunk Sam to Johnny's place and doesn't inform the LaRussos at all. While the LaRussos might have been angry at Sam for drinking, that's nothing compared to how worried and angry they are when she doesn't come home at all, and the incident ends up ruining Daniel and Johnny's second reconciliation and causing Daniel to ditch Robby.
- The West Valley brawl is the culmination of many of these moments:
- Johnny ignores a call from Miguel while talking to Robby when he drops him off at school. It turns out Miguel wanted to ask him about the Sam/Tory situation, which means Johnny might have been able to give him advice that would have prevented the fight.
- Miguel misinterprets the situation and attacks Robby when he's trying to restrain Tory, freeing her to continue assaulting Sam and turning the fight into an all-out brawl.
- While it is the morally right thing to do, Miguel letting Robby out of the submission hold and apologizing leads directly to Robby kicking him. And on Robby's end, this cheap shot causes Miguel to fall over the railing, leading to Miguel's Career-Ending Injury. Thinking that Robby redeemed himself from his previous crimes, this is the seen as the biggest crime in the eyes of police.
Season 3
- Johnny gets into a fight at a parking garage for basically no good reason. Not only does he get the crap kicked out of him as he's drunk as hell and unfit to actually use his karate, but this arrest along with his reputation from the school ruckus makes it impossible for him to obtain any kind of work.
- Johnny goes a step too far in beating down the chop shop guys trying to find information on Robby. Thus Daniel predictably flips out and they once again go their separate ways...about 15 seconds before Daniel gets a call stating that Robby is at the rehab center.
- Instead of finding a place to hide Robby in and giving him time to weigh up the situation, Daniel calls the cops the minute he finds out where Robby is, convincing them he would turn himself in. Then, he takes way too much time telling Robby that he wants him to turn himself in so he'd get a much lighter sentence for his role in the school brawl. Thus, a cop strolls in and takes Robby away, making it seem like Daniel ratted him out and breaking their relationship for essentially the rest of the season.
- All of Miyagi-Do's attempts to stand up to Cobra Kai and become Bully Hunters fail miserably and cause more problems than they solve:
- The soccer fight gets all of the Miyagi-Do students rehabilitative detention, while Cobra Kai get off scot-free thanks to Hawk's manipulations.
- Instead of calling the cops and having Hawk and his gang banned from the arcade for harassing Chris at work, the Miyagi-Dos decide to take matters into their own hands and ambush them. They start with the upper hand, but the fight turns into a Curb-Stomp Battle for Cobra Kai when Tory's arrival causes Sam to have a panic attack. Demetri winds up with a broken arm and Kreese is able to use the ambush to make Cobra Kai look like Villains With Good Publicity at the City Council meeting later in the season.
- Pretty much every person watching the show cheered when Amanda stormed into Cobra Kai, eviscerated Kreese verbally and gave him a good slap for his troubles. Unfortunately, Kreese is smart and uses said incident to have a personal protection order taken out against her and essentially make it all but impossible for the LaRussos to prosecute him.
- On top of the above, Amanda attempts a more straightforward version of what Daniel did to Johnny in Season 1 to get Cobra Kai kicked out of the strip mall, this time by straight up bribing Zakarian into evicting Kreese. Kreese just simply beats the shit out of Zakarian and his "insurance" and now escalates the war much further against Miyagi-Do in retribution. Also, Daniel attempted his ploy when Johnny only had Miguel as a student and it probably would've stopped Cobra Kai before it started. Amanda did it when Kreese already had a well-funded "army". Even if she had succeeded there was nothing stopping Kreese from just picking another location as he's likely much more financially affluent than Johnny was thanks to the funds from the students.
- Miguel is understandably annoyed at Tory for never visiting him while he was in the hospital. However, his poor choice of words in their ensuing conversation only incenses Tory and drives her deeper into her rage and her connection with Cobra Kai.
Season 4
- Amanda storms into the restaurant Tory works at, and demands her to leave Sam alone. But she ends up pushing a few buttons, and Tory acts, which leads to her getting promptly fired. Even after Amanda learns Tory's home life from Kreese, she leaves a grocery bag at a doorstep right after she lost her job because of her. Tory misinterprets this as Condescending Compassion and confronts Amanda at the dealership, declaring she doesn't need her sympathy and is more determined then ever to humiliate Sam. It's only after Tory's situation becomes dire enough that she swallows her pride and starts accepting Amanda's help.
- When Hawk sees Kenny in the West Valley High bathroom wearing a Cobra Kai shirt, he pushes him against the stall and tells the kid in an aggressive tone to get out of the dojo while he can. Had he taken the time to learn why Kenny joined and explained what Kreese actually does to the students, Kenny probably would have listened and quit the dojo. Instead, Kenny mistakenly interprets Hawk's advice as a threat and he remains loyal.
- Because of Daniel and Johnny's egos, Cobra Kai wins! Both men feel firmly that their way is the right way and aren't truly open to setting aside their differences until it's too late. They don't bother to understand what their power struggle with Kreese is doing to their students and how it's tearing friendships apart. Even when people like Miguel, Sam and Robby try to explain to them that they're being closed-minded, the two senseis refuse to listen. By the time of the tournament, Eagle Fang only has one female competitor, so they're ham-strung in that category, whereas Miyagi-Do only has Sam and Hawk to lean on as complete fighters. Finally, the combination of Miguel's back injury giving him trouble and his two mentors being assholes finally drive him to get away from it all and not even bother to continue in the tournament. Ultimately Cobra Kai wins by a single point, but if they'd learned their lessons sooner, Cobra Kai wouldn't have stood a chance.
- Robby was going soft on Kenny because he didn't want to hurt the kid he had been mentoring. When he realizes he's gonna lose if he does, he drops it and goes all in to win. Unfortunately, he goes just a bit too far causing Kenny to learn by example and fully embrace the "No Mercy" mentality.
Season 5
- After Cobra Kai win the All Valley Tournament, Daniel closes down Miyagi-Do despite the protest of Sam and his students under the stubborn belief he is protecting them from Cobra Kai and must fight Silver by himself. Daniel fails to realize that Cobra Kai will threaten to hurt his students, whether the Dojo is open or not like they did back in Season 3. Daniel's decision also further alienates Sam who feels guilty that her loss led to the Dojo closure and Anthony is left defenceless from a vengeful Kenny targeting him and unable to learn karate due to the Dojo's closure.
- Daniel finally gets tired of being ambushed by random foes from his past, he decides to preemptively go after the one enemy he has left that he hadn't confronted recently: Mike Barnes. Unfortunately, at this point Daniel is running on complete paranoia, and Chozen is, well...Chozen, so neither of them figure out the obvious clues that Mike is just working a normal job and has nothing to do with Silver anymore, only having that resolved when a brawl erupts with the three of them. Mike does end up giving Daniel a potential lead on a lawyer who drafted up his contract with Silver, but Silver finds out immediately and decides to BURN DOWN MIKE'S STORE IN RESPONSE. Poor Mike is financially ruined from this, and while it's understandable that Daniel didn't think Silver would go that far in response, all he really accomplished was getting an innocent man put to ruin.
- Daniel doesn't tell Amanda his complete history with Terry Silver so when Terry decides to drive a wedge between the couple, he succeeds due to his Villain with Good Publicity. Daniel ends up pushing Amanda too far with his vendetta by humiliating her at a fundraiser held at Silver's home, causing her to leave him and take Sam and Anthony with her to Ohio. A devastated Daniel is left a drunken mess and is brutally beaten by Silver as revenge for his constant interference in Silver's affairs. This leaves Daniel too frightened and depressed to fight back. Luckily, Amanda and Johnny rejoin him and help him recover.
- Sam has this reaction towards Tory when the latter finally reveals Silver's bribery to her. She is absolutely furious at her old nemesis and blames the pain her family has gone through—from her parents' marriage nearly falling apart to Daniel being beaten down and having a Heroic BSoD, and her brother being defenceless against Kenny because Miyagi-Do shut down as part of the bet, on top of Sam's own issues after her sketchy defeat, including blaming herself—on Tory taking this long to reveal the truth. She even calls Tory a coward for not coming forward earlier.Sam: My entire family has suffered... because of you!
