"The comments are not always so kind to the LaRussos. Some of them seem to think that we’re the real bullies and that we’re the villains all along. I hear that one quite a bit."
In a show like Cobra Kai, it isn't uncommon to see some characters get villainized by fandom to a degree beyond what is seen as justified by fans of said characters.- This was especially prevalent in the fandom after season 2. The show set the marketing for season 2 as "Cobra Kai vs Miyagi-Do! Which side are you on?" Since Cobra Kai is the titular dojo and the "cooler" dojo, a lot of people sided with the characters in that dojo despite their wrongdoings while Miyagi-Do characters like Sam, Robby, and Demetri get a lot of hate.
- Some Hawk fans act as if his bullying of Demetri is completely justified on the basis of Demetri being annoying and outing Hawk as a bedwetter, even though the latter was a reaction to constant harassment from Hawk, including being gang-assaulted at the mall over a Yelp review, Hawk vandalizing Miyagi-Do, and Hawk pouring a drink on Demetri's head, the last of these being when Demetri was trying to make amends with Hawk even after the first two. Not to mention that during the school brawl, Demetri was the only student to try and get an authority figure involved and took Miyagi’s "defense only" teachings to heart by fighting back at Hawk when all other options, including running away, were exhausted. Even if Demetri hadn’t embarrassed him at the party, Hawk would very likely have still chased him down during the brawl and if the brawl hadn’t happened, Hawk would at the very least be harassing him all year. Sure, he’s a mouthy kid, but it’s a healthier reaction to the brutal violence that Hawk, Mitch, and Tory resort to.
- Sam is frequently vilified by a portion of the fanbase, who overstate the degree to which she is responsible for many of the conflicts in the series by focusing on her miscommunications while giving other characters a free pass for needlessly resorting to violence in response. Three particular examples come to mind:
- Many act as if Sam is solely responsible for the school brawl due to drunkenly kissing Miguel, ignoring that Miguel kissed her back while sober, Tory reacted disproportionately by starting the fight, Miguel tackled Robby when he stupidly believed Robby was attacking Tory and Hawk escalated the violence out of control.
- She also gets criticized for leading the Miyagi-Dos into the arcade fight in "Miyagi-Do" in season 3. It clearly was a mistake, but by this point in time, Cobra Kai had been constantly antagonizing them, beating them up, bullying them, and then playing the victim when they got caught, so it's no surprise that Sam and the other Miyagi-Do students wanted payback, as the alternative was to put up with the Cobra Kais harassing them all year long and getting away with it. There's also a tendency for some fans to blame Sam for Demetri's arm getting broken, never mind that Sam was having a panic attack at the time as a result of Tory showing up and calling out to her, and is clearly guilt-ridden over it. And ultimately, the only person to blame for breaking Demetri's arm is Hawk, the person who actually did it, and more importantly while Demetri was on the ground, subdued, and begging Hawk to stop.
- In Season 4 when it comes to Sam’s behaviour towards Tory, who genuinely tries to put their rivalry to bed. While it’s clear that the audience is not supposed to agree with Sam’s petty bullying of Tory at her job, threatening her at school, and attacking her at prom after Tory insulted her height, even though Sam Slut-Shaming her started the encounter, as usual, a large portion of the fanbase has fallen into Black-and-White Insanity by only looking at one side of the conflict. One side hates Sam for acting this way, despite having justifiable reasons, and ignore Tory’s past actions, and the other fully supports her given Tory’s past actions. However, the season’s deconstruction of Sam’s somewhat classist Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse speeches is completely ignored by her supporters, who don’t see the irony that Sam is behaving the same way Tory did in the past, despite not having the same issues the latter has to deal with. Notably, Sam doesn't actually know what Tory is going through, and when she goes to visit Tory and actually sees how miserable her home life is in season 5, she immediately becomes much more sympathetic.
- Some Robby fans dislike Miguel on the grounds that he's getting in the way of Johnny being able to devote time and effort to Robby. This generally overlooks the fact that Miguel has never directly or indirectly given Johnny an ultimatum, never tried to force Johnny to pick between himself and Robby, and never even done something less direct like complain if Johnny is reaching out to Robby and trying to bond with him. Any time that Johnny has made a definitive choice between Robby and Miguel (like giving up in season 1 on trying to get Robby to return to school and focusing on mentoring Miguel instead, or when he stays at the hospital in season 3 to pray with Miguel's family instead of going to his scheduled juvie visit with Robby), Johnny made those choices on his own without any input or influence from Miguel. If anything, the show even makes it clear that Johnny and Robby's relationship was worse before Miguel came along and showed Johnny (indirectly) that he needed to be in his son's life.
- While Anthony was undoubtably an asshole in the first four seasons, some people miss the point and get catharsis from watching him being disproportionately bullied by Kenny for what was at the end of the day, mean antics that he was punished and has apologized for. Kenny’s, however, includes life-threatening pranks like dunking Anthony’s head in an unflushed toilet with the help of larger bullies like Kyler, who is far worse than Anthony could ever be. Even then, some fans say Anthony deserved that.
- Some people believe Tory to be solely responsible for everything that happened in Season 5 because she wouldn't confess about Silver cheating in the All-Valley until episode 8. This ignores that while Tory wrongly put her trust in Kreese, she had her worries about being a double agent, feels guilty about her illegitimate victory and how she led Daniel to receive a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from Silver, and as soon as her partnership with Kreese fell apart, she confesses the next day after leaving the Sekai Taikai tryouts. Still, some accuse her of hiding the truth for selfish reasons and have even gone as far as to say she deserved being tortured by Kim for this on top of her previous misdeeds.
