Sandbox / The Karate Kid Kenny Payne

Kenny Payne

"I want another shot."

Played By: Dallas Dupree Young

Appearances: Cobra Kai

"Before Cobra Kai, I used to get picked on. Now I'm stronger than I've ever been. I'm never quitting. Because I'm not a quitter."

A new student at West Valley Middle School and the brother of Shawn Payne who joins Cobra Kai after he is bullied by his peers. He develops a mentee-mentor relationship with Robby Keene and later becomes Terry Silver's top male student.

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• Anti-Villain: He's completely detached from the main conflict and simply joined Cobra Kai because he was being bullied at school by Anthony LaRusso and his friends and Cobra Kai happened to be the dojo Robby was currently training at. This trope eventually gets lost by the Season 4 finale where Kenny fully embraces Cobra Kai’s teachings and becomes an outright villain after giving Anthony a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown that appalls even Robby.
• Arch-Enemy: Kenny eventually becomes this to Anthony LaRusso. The latter bullies the former relentlessly to gain standing with his peers, which leads to Kenny joining Cobra Kai. But by the time Anthony has a Heel–Face Turn and tries to make peace with Kenny, Kenny himself fully embraces the Cobra Kai creed and becomes the bully to Anthony. Kenny escalates the rivalry significantly in Season 5, with his bullying of Anthony even extending to potentially dangerous and life-threatening actions like giving him a swirly in an unflushed toilet.
• Ax-Crazy: Goes fully into this territory in season 5 under Silver and Kim’s tutelage. Whether it’s the serious, life-threatening retribution he inflicts on Anthony or the dirty tactics he uses in fights with Eli and Robby, Kenny now tries to inflict as much damage on his target as possible.
• Ascended Extra: He plays a larger role in the series starting from Season 5 after debuting in Season 4 as a recurring character.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: A key part of Season 5 is his refusal to realize he's become just the same kind of bully as the kids who picked on him.
• Big Brother Worship: Even after Shawn was sent to juvie, Kenny still looks up to him and seeks his advice.
• Black and Nerdy: His hobbies include playing video games, drawing anime, and cosplaying.
• Black-and-White Insanity: Starts to develop this in Season 5, seeing anyone who aligns with people he hates, even indirectly and even if they'd formerly been his friends, as his enemies and believing everyone on his side, even Kyler who also bullied him, is good.
• Break the Haughty: After getting a bigger ego in Season 5 thanks to Silver and Cobra Kai's indoctrination and his growing skills, he comes crashing back down to Earth HARD after he learns that Silver bribed the judges at the All-Valley and realizes he likely did the same at the Sekai Taikai qualifier (which he did), meaning the victories weren't legitimate. Getting easily beaten by Miguel likely didn't help.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Towards Robby at first after leaving Cobra Kai and made even worse when Kenny catches him coaching Anthony during the Sekai Taikai tryouts. Because of his growing anger and sadism towards Anthony coupled with Silver's indoctrination, Kenny shortsightedly deems Robby a traitor and his enemy, while Robby tries in vain to reason with him. Luckily, learning the truth of Silver's bribery made Kenny return to his senses.
  • More than anyone in Cobra Kai, Kenny saw Silver as a great guy helping him become a better person. He's rocked when he sees the evidence of Silver having bribed judges to let Cobra Kai win and then the man as a raged-up mess trying to attack Daniel with a trophy. Thus, Kenny is the first one to tear off his Cobra Kai jacket and throw it at Silver's feet as it finally sinks in what he let this man turn him into.
• Combat Pragmatist: In "Minefields", Anthony and his friends chase Kenny into the library. In a sequence that Rambo would be proud of, Kenny defeats Anthony's group by switching off the lights and using the darkness and the environment to pick them off one by one. This is later Deconstructed in Season 5 as it's shown that, thanks to Silver's indoctrination, Kenny's attempts to be this have crossed the line from simply being pragmatic to flat out cheating, as he's willing to break any agreed upon competition rules to secure wins for himself and Cobra Kai.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Kenny's quickness serves him well in sparring matches where all he needs to do is land hits on his opponents to score points. However, his lack of strength proves to be a problem in actual street fights where he needs to be able to inflict physical pain on his opponents to win, as shown when he takes on Hawk at the water park. Notably, both his non-sparring fights in Season 5 have him rely on his speed by pretending to give up so that he can give his opponent a swift sucker punch. While learning the "Silver Bullet" technique from Silver helps, the windup and precise aiming the move requires makes it difficult to execute in such a scenario. His attempt to use it on Robby only temporarily stuns him since it missed and Miguel proves to be too fast for the move.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Besides Silver himself, Kenny is the only known fighter (especially among the current generation) to have mastered the dreaded "Silver Bullet" technique, which was used to knock Hawk out of commission and temporarily stun Robby.
• Disproportionate Retribution: In Season 5, Kenny has not only taken to bullying Anthony himself, but he also does it in ways that are not just humiliating to him, but genuinely dangerous and could result in real physical harm. Plus, he's never shown going after any of the other members of Anthony's gang, even though they were just as guilty and never apologized or attempted to make amends like Anthony did. Robby calls him out on this when Kenny expresses disgust that Robby is helping Anthony.
• Et Tu, Brute?: He's NOT happy that Robby quit Cobra Kai to rejoin Miyagi-Do and train Anthony against him in Season 5.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • It should be noted that Kenny only targets and attacks the people who have previously wronged or threatened him and leaves those who haven't done so alone. He doesn't even attack Miguel until he backs up Robby, who Kenny has come to really hate. On that note, Kenny is seen visibly scared whenever the prospect of fighting Miguel arises, knowing that someone who can definitively challenge Robby will not be an opponent he can defeat.
  • See Broken Pedestal above, Kenny is visibly devastated when he finds out the painful truth about Silver's bribery. He came to Cobra Kai to learn karate to fend off his tormentors, then found common ground with Sensei Silver because of their respective upbringings and looked up to him as a father figure. But still like his fellow students, he doesn't like the idea of being made a false champion through bribery.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He thinks that Robby betrayed him by rejoining Miyagi-Do, failing to understand the fact that his own ferocity, ruthlessness, and refusal to listen to Robby's warnings about Silver and Cobra Kai alienated him from the person who was like a brother to him.
• Eviler than Thou: By Season 5, he becomes a far worse bully than Anthony ever was to him, going from Jerkass to straight-up Ax-Crazy, Sadist, and (at one point) even Politically Incorrect Villain status. How is this compared in practice? Anthony relies on public humiliation and cruel pranks, but is most of the time a Peer-Pressured Bully who doesn't fully agree with some of his friends' malicious acts. Kenny on the other hand is more than willing to utilize physical harm towards Anthony, whether it'd be giving him a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown in the locker room, kicking him into the lazy river, or giving him a swirly in a diarrhea-filled toilet. Kenny's bullying also extends beyond his main victim (Anthony), as shown by his deadly "Silver-Bullet" punch towards Hawk, followed by a Kick the Dog moment.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Anger. As a former bullying victim, Kenny has a lot of pent-up anger and not unjustifiably, but it quickly overtakes his entire being and morphs into bullying and sadism, making him even worse than Anthony was to him and lashing out at anyone he feels hurt or let him down, such as Robby, and unable to see what he's become.
  • Arrogance. As he grows in confidence, he equally grows more arrogant and full of himself. In spite of lacking experience, he was quick to mock Hawk, even though the latter is now an All-Valley Champ. It shows up various times, the most notable being after he cheats using the Silver Bullet technique, and is quick to mock Hawk once again. It's so bad to the point where during the Final Battle, he dares to take on another All-Valley champ (Miguel), only for him to be beaten down rather quickly.
• Faux Affably Evil: In season 5, his interactions with Anthony show signs of this. Kenny is able to project a casual and friendly attitude to lull Anthony in a false sense of security. Then he quickly drops the act when he's about to make Anthony suffer in life-threatening ways. He also uses this attitude to falsely surrender against opponents... only to follow up with a quick sucker punch.
• Fragile Speedster: Kenny is able to use his speed to great advantage, but he's far from the toughest guy on the mat and struggles with pain whenever he takes a direct hit from an opponent.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Starts off as a bullied student before he is recruited into Cobra Kai as one of the core members and fully embraces the Cobra Kai creed, with his vicious beatdown of Anthony LaRusso.
• Gendered Insult: When Anthony approaches Kenny and attempts to talk things out with him, Kenny, distrustful of Anthony, calls him by his Embarrassing Nickname, "LaPusso".
• Give Me a Reason: In Season 5, while it's true that he avoids targeting anyone who hasn't wronged or come into conflict with him, Kenny will look for any excuse to attack someone and justify his actions. Miguel becomes one of his targets simply because he's on the same side as Robby and tried to calmly explain to Kenny that Silver has been lying to him.
• Glass Cannon: After learning the Silver Bullet, Kenny's offensive style of fighting becomes this combined with his quickness. The Silver Bullet helped him take down Hawk and Robby, but his defense and durability due to his small size is low as he is easily taken out in one or two hits courtesy of Miguel.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: After Silver is exposed as fixing the tournament and promptly defeated by Daniel, Kenny is convinced to abandon Cobra Kai alongside the rest of the students, but simply tells Robby he's not ready to discuss things right now, preferring to do some soul-searching and gather his thoughts first.
• The Heavy: Arguably becomes this to the younger generation of students in Season 5. Even though Tory Nichols is their champion, Kenny is by far the most corrupted student and Terry Silver's clear favorite — certainly helps that he eventually becomes their best male fighter. He leads his bullying antics toward Anthony LaRusso and the brawl against the Miyagi-Fangs at the Cobra Kai dojo.
• Hidden Depths: In the second episode of Season 4, he is shown to be pretty good at basketball.
• Horrible Judge of Character: He hangs around with Kyler despite the guy making no effort to hide what an asshole he is, including to Kenny himself. Kenny doesn't even pick up on the fact that both Robby and Tory clearly don't like Kyler and prefer to keep to keep their distance from him.
• Hourglass Plot: Upon his introduction and throughout the majority of Season 4, he's the main bully victim of Anthony LaRusso during their time in middle school. After giving him a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown and fully embracing Kreese's and Silver's Cobra Kai teachings, he's shaped up to be Anthony's main bully in high school.
• Hypocrite:
  • Kenny's pissed off that Robby is training the person (Anthony) who bullied him in the past. Robby's response sums up this trope pretty well. Kenny also has no issue being friends with Kyler, who's a far worse bully than Anthony was, including to Kenny.
  Robby: Heard you're the one doing all the bullying.
  • Kenny also mockingly calls Hawk a fraud after he wins their Sekai Taikai tryout match, despite the fact that he only won because he knowingly used an illegal move to injure him and force him to forfeit.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Inverted. Kenny does this twice in Season 5 but notably does it to start a fight. He does this to Hawk at the water park and to Miguel at the start of the flagship dojo fight. Played straight against Robby Keene in Season 4, although slightly downplayed as this was during a sparring session with the move being on Silver's orders on his lesson about weakness.
• Inadequate Inheritor: Inverted in Season 5. When Robby leaves Cobra Kai, Kenny quickly becomes the best male fighter in the dojo when he proves himself to be Kyler's superior with Silver even acknowledging Kenny's potential that he assigns him to represent Cobra Kai in the Sekai Taikai qualifying match. However, the status as the best male fighter is mostly because Cobra Kai at this point is mainly Mooks and Kenny himself even acknowledges before the Sekai Taikai qualifiers that he won't stand a chance against whoever he is put against.
• Instant Expert: Once fully resolved, Kenny takes to learning karate at a speed that would make even Daniel blush with envy. He makes the Top 8 of the All-Valley despite being the youngest of the principal cast, and having the shortest amount of time to actually learn the discipline (Devon had an even shorter turn around but it's clear that the Girls' Karate pool is significantly more diluted). Silver even teaches him a personal technique of his to attack the space between the ribs to collapse the diaphragm and force a forfeit (something legitimately possible in real life, though very hard to consistently do without a stationary opponent). He learns it in less than 24 hours.
• It's All My Fault: The reason Shawn was sent to juvie was because he gave a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to a former friend who attacked Kenny after the latter caught said friend stealing from the Paynes. Kenny blames himself for his brother being sent away since he was only trying to protect him.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Deconstructed. His anger and hatred towards Anthony aren't unjustified, Anthony having been an awful bully to him, but Kenny goes way too far in his retribution by regularly going out of his way to torment Anthony in far crueler ways, making him come across as even worse.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Kenny gets introduced to Cobra Kai courtesy of Robby per Shawn's suggestion to defend himself from his tormentors. As the series progresses, Kenny becomes more vicious thanks to Kreese and Silver's teachings while Anthony is on the path of making things right. Unfortunately, Anthony finds out the hard way as Kenny beats Anthony to a pulp while he's alone until Robby intervenes. He doesn't stop there in the next season, as the bullying he puts Anthony through goes to borderline murderous intent, from kicking him down to the lazy river while being trapped in inflatable tubes to a swirly in a diarrhea-filled toilet.
• Junior Counterpart: To Terry Silver while arguably being his Mirror Character.
  • Much like how Silver started out, Kenny was a meek, skinny kid who looked to others for guidance and protection; this is emphasized when Terry cites this to Kenny, believing in his own potential as a fighter and a leader. As a matter of fact, both men did not start out as natural fighters before growing more obsessed with karate.
  • Over the course of Seasons 4 and 5, Kenny slowly begins to adopt Silver's fighting style as he grows more into a Cobra Kai fighter. Him taking Silver's advice in exploiting Robby's weakness is what grants him the victory in their lesson — solidifying himself as a pragmatic fighter. Besides Silver himself (and possibly Kim Sun-Yung), Kenny is the only character to know The Dreaded "Silver Bullet" technique, which he uses against Hawk and Robby in practice.
  • Beneath all the anger he has bottled up from the bullying he's endured from Anthony and Hawk (to a lesser extent) along with Robby "betraying" him, he is capable of displaying a Faux Affably Evil persona, as shown when he's recruiting potential new Cobra Kai students and bullying Anthony at the waterpark. Terry would be proud.
  • And finally, Silver's rivalry with Daniel LaRusso is easily passed down to Kenny's rivalry with Daniel's son, Anthony. Even more jarring is that their Slasher Smiles toward each LaRusso are eerily similar (Silver revealing his plan and true nature to Daniel, Kenny vowing to make Anthony's life a living hell in high school).
  • On a purely karate perspective, Silver acknowledges in-universe that Kenny has the potential to exceed Miguel, Robby and Hawk if he had enough training. Kenny has the ambition and eagerness to learn of Miguel, the Miyagi-Do defense (to an extent) and leadership of Robby and the confidence of Hawk. Unfortunately, the last part gets too out of hand where in Season 5, it eventually becomes the arrogance of not Hawk, but Kyler which holds him back from being a greater fighter.
• Kick the Dog:
  • To Anthony, who he never fails to brutally beat up or humiliate. While Anthony's former bullying would normally make this another trope, the fact that Anthony did genuinely try to apologize and make amends while Kenny refuses to let up and goes way further than Anthony did makes it this trope.
  • To Hawk as well, giving him an uncalled-for insult after using the “Silver Bullet” on him during the Sekai-Taikai qualifier — something the former could have actually been hospitalized for.
• Lonely Rich Kid: While his family is well-off, his dad is in the military and deployed, his mom works long hours, his older brother is in juvie, and he just moved to West Valley Middle School and hasn't made any friends. That all changes when he is recruited by Robby to join Cobra Kai, and even then most of the students (particularly Kyler) treat him like a glorified servant.
• Mask of Sanity: In season 5, Kenny is able to pretend to be his meek old self underneath his pent-up anger, hatred, and sadism as a result of Cobra Kai's indoctrination. He lets the mask slip at the drop of a hat the instant he runs into Anthony, where he'll assault him when the opportunity arises.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Promises Anthony that he would be in a world of "pain" during his No-Holds-Barred Beatdown in the locker room. And he sure backs it up with his hostile antics alongside the other Cobra Kais.
  • Also counts as Foreshadowing, but early in Season 4, Kenny is introduced with his Dungeon Lord username being KennyTheJet. Obviously, jets are known to be really fast, and Kenny just so happens to be a speedster who learns very quickly (examples being making it into the All-Valley quarterfinals despite his youth and limited karate experience, and learning the deadly "Silver Bullet" technique in less than 24 hours).
• Mirror Character:
  • Kenny is one to Daniel LaRusso circa the original film. He's a new transfer student who's quickly bullied by his new classmates (with a Love Triangle being involved) and turns to learning karate as a method to fight back.
  • Much like Miguel and Hawk, Kenny was a victim of bullying at his school before turning to Cobra Kai as a means to gain confidence, and ultimately goes too far.
  • And, like young Johnny Lawrence, he's a Lonely Rich Kid with a very poor family life who joins Cobra Kai to find acceptance (although the details differ significantly: in Kenny's case, his family is an absentee one, who does care for him despite everything, while in Johnny's, his father abandoned him during his childhood and his stepfather was emotionally abusive, leaving only his mom to love him).
  • As he becomes more and more ruthless, he winds up become one to Terry Silver (see Junior Counterpart).
  • Also to Anthony. Both are middle-school kids with "nerdy" tastes. However, while Kenny is more-or-less open about them, Anthony is a Closet Geek who (uncomfortably) bullies Kenny to make himself look cool to his friends, driving the latter straight into Cobra Kai's hands.
  • In terms of female characters in the series, he is definitely this to Devon. Both are nerds who turn to a Tang Soo Do style of karate and are Like a Duck Takes to Water when it comes to learning the art, both happen to be mentored by a designated All-Valley champion from Cobra Kai (Robby to Kenny, Tory to Devon) whom they lost to in the quarterfinals, both have rough family situations which serve as their motivation to train, and both become Cobra Kai's designated champions in the Sekai Taikai qualifier. Interestingly, both Dallas Young and O'ona O'Brien were announced as new cast members at the exact same time, making their similarities all the more jarring.
  • Also to Tory, given that they are both vicious fighters who are top Cobra Kai students (particularly in Silver's Cobra Kai) and also act as a Morality Pet to a Cobra Kai founder (Tory to Kreese, Kenny to Silver). Speaking of Morality Pet, both become The Heavy for the current generation of karatekas for their respective seasons when their Evil Mentor takes over Cobra Kai (Tory for Season 3 under Kreese's Cobra Kai, Kenny for Season 5 under Silver's Cobra Kai), and both lead the charge against the Miyagi-Fangs in the Final Battle. Not to mention, both are the Arch-Enemy of a LaRusso sibling (Tory to Sam, Kenny to Anthony), given the latter's shitty treatment of them (Sam's disdain for Tory's criminality and stealing Miguel away from her; Anthony's bullying of Kenny).
  • He eventually becomes this to his brother, Shawn, as he embraces more of the Cobra Kai creed and turns into an outright villain at the end of Season 4 going on to Season 5. Both are juveniles with a Dark and Troubled Past that led to their ruthlessness (Shawn being sent to juvie for protecting his brother, Kenny turning to Cobra Kai are being bullied in middle school), eventually becoming the leader of a Gang of Bullies and The Bully to the son of an original Karate Kid character (Shawn to Johnny's son: Robby, Kenny to Daniel's son: Anthony). Interestingly, both boys have a Suddenly Shouting moment that fully establishes their character as a vicious bully to the audience — albeit under different circumstance. And finally, both become vicious fighters in their own right (Shawn, despite lacking formal karate training, is able to give Robby one heck of a fight; Kenny being a fast-learner able to master complicated Tang Soo Do techniques, including Terry's "Silver Bullet"), and both oppose Robby Keene (albeit for different reasons).
• Morality Pet:
  • For his brother, Shawn. He may have been The Bully in juvie, but he genuinely loves his brother and was only sent to juvie in the first place because he defended Kenny from being assaulted by a friend of his who stole from their home.
  • To Robby. Even after he's turned to the dark side by joining Cobra Kai, Robby takes Kenny under his wing and teaches him karate to deal with his bullies, and wants nothing more than to be a good mentor to him. It's quite telling that Robby is much more upset about feeling that he has failed in this goal than the fact that he lost the final of the tournament. In Season 5, after he fails to convince Kenny to leave Cobra Kai, Robby rejoins Miyagi-do and tells Daniel they need to take down the dojo so they can save Kenny from Silver.
  • To Terry whose sincere concern and affection for Kenny are among his few redeeming traits. Terry genuinely wants to help Kenny grow and become more assertive and confident, and provide him with the guidance to help him do so.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Once he sees Silver's true colors and realizes Robby was right about him all along, Kenny can only look to the floor in shame.
• The Napoleon: He’s the shortest student in all the dojos and he has a temper that can compete with Hawk’s.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: In Season 5, his skills have developed rapidly and it's clear he's now Cobra Kai's flagship dojo's best male fighter. However, this says more about Cobra Kai's current talent pool than his own skills, as it's made clear he's still far behind the true teenage karate aces of the Valley: Eli, Robby, and Miguel. Eli beats him rather handily at the waterpark (and only loses to Kenny at the Sekai Taikai tryout because Kenny cheated and Terry bribed the referee), Robby only doesn't kick his ass in the finale brawl because he doesn't want to fight him and only uses defensive moves, and Miguel wipes the floor with him after he steps in to defend Robby.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In Season 5, Kenny acts very arrogant and self-assured thanks to his new position in the dojo hierarchy from co-leader with Kyler to full-on leader of the students who now calls the shots. He doesn't hesitate to pick fights or intimidate the likes of Robby and Hawk, but every time Miguel steps in, Kenny is visibly scared of facing him, with all hints of his arrogance wiping away in a flash. This prompts Kenny to either tread carefully or only fight if he knows he has a large enough number advantage if Miguel is around.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Regards Anthony as "looking pretty pasty" before further assaulting him at the waterpark. Whether or not he intended to is unclear, but "pasty" is a derogatory slang for white people.
• Rebuilt Pedestal: It's ambiguous, but he slowly begins to respect Robby again and repair their friendship after he sees Terry Silver's true colors (which Robby warned him about earlier). While he decides to do some soul-searching first, Tory is confident he's eventually going to come around.
• Sadist: A tragic example, considering he was a meek, bullied kid who wanted to defend himself before he becomes corrupted by Kreese's and especially Silver's teachings. As if his Slasher Smile in the Season 4 finale isn't enough, his antics toward Anthony are just downright dangerous, and it only gets much worse when he's more than willing to learn Terry's deadly "Silver Bullet" technique—which he uses against Hawk and Robby.
• Sanity Slippage: His sanity begins to start going downhill in Season 5 where he puts Anthony (his ex-bully) through borderline murderous humiliating acts and he almost becomes fully insane in the season finale when he promises to give a brutal beatdown to all of the Miyagi-Fangs even after Miguel and Robby give him several chances to back down. Fortunately, Anthony shows Kenny the truth about Terry Silver and demoralizes him to the core, stopping him from becoming completely insane.
• Shadow Archetype: He becomes this to Robby by the end of the season. It's only in witnessing how far Kenny has been corrupted by Cobra Kai's teachings that Robby realizes how far he too has fallen.
  Robby: But when I saw him today, it was like looking in a mirror, and I realised I screwed everything up.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Kenny's personality starts off as the exact opposite of his brother Shawn's, which Robby even lampshades. Unlike Shawn, who's a very vocal and intimidating bully, Kenny is a quiet and laid-back kid who is content to mind his own business and play on his computer. Unfortunately, this winds up being viciously subverted by the end of the season as Cobra Kai has warped Kenny into being a bully very similar to his brother. It's also noticeably chilling that like Shawn, Kenny also has a Suddenly Shouting moment that firmly establishes his character as a vicious bully.
• Skilled, but Naive: Kenny no doubt has a lot of potential in karate that he was able to make it to the quarter-finals at his age and learn the Silver Bullet technique overnight. However, he does not have the raw fighting experience that the older students have. Character-wise, Kenny's young age and lack of a present role model in his life makes him susceptible to blindly believing in people who are on his side. This made Kenny follow the leadership of Silver and even Kyler at one point, not knowing the kind of people the two are.
• Slasher Smile: Gives a pretty epic one to Anthony that signifies that he's become fully corrupted into a bully by Kreese and Silver's philosophy.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Becomes this in Season 5 where he begins flaunting his new skills and influence towards those he perceives as his enemies. He even tries downplaying Hawk's title as All Valley champion, despite only making it to the quarterfinals himself and his own mentor Robby being defeated by Hawk. This arrogance even has him try to challenge Miguel of all people. Naturally, Miguel gives him a reality check.
• So Last Season: Kenny trying to justify his vengeance throughout Season 5 for Anthony bullying him in the previous season comes off as a shallow excuse when he becomes much worse than his former tormentor, who was more or less a Peer-Pressured Bully and has made strides to reform himself.
• Suddenly Shouting: Has this as part of a Rejected Apology with Anthony after he finally goes off the deep end and fully embraces the Cobra Kai creed.
  Kenny: Then you wouldn't know. Because no one's ever been such as piece of SHIT TO YOU!!!
• Tag Along Kid: Since he has no friends his own age, he hangs out with Robby and the other high school-aged Cobra Kai students.
• Tautological Templar: Kenny seems to believe that since he was wronged first by Anthony, it justifies the unending series of dangerous and even life-threatening acts that he inflicts on him.
• Teacher's Pet: He’s Silver’s star pupil. Silver sees a lot of himself in Kenny as they were both once weak kids who were molded into deadly combatants.
• Those Two Guys: He's rarely seen without Kyler in Season 5, especially when they bully Anthony.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Over the course of Season 4, Kenny becomes an overly ruthless and rage-filled bully to seek revenge on Anthony. Robby is not happy about this in the slightest. It gets worse in Season 5, as he now leads his gang of Cobra Kai thugs in bullying Anthony in far more cruel and harmful ways than Anthony ever did to him, despite Anthony genuinely feeling guilty about his past behavior and honestly wanting to make amends.
• Tragic Villain: At the start of the season, there's absolutely nothing villainous about him; he's just your typical middle school boy who plays video games, likes anime, and is quite athletic. That all changes when he becomes bullied by his peers, joins a notorious dojo known for its vicious creed, and is mentored by deranged, PTSD-ridden war vets in John Kreese and Terry Silver.
• Tranquil Fury: Anthony's constant bullying of Kenny causes Kenny to internalize his anger over the season. When Anthony finally tries to apologize, Kenny's response is chilling:
  Kenny: What do you want?
  Anthony: Um, I guess I just wanted to say that... I'm sorry, okay? For all the... for all the shit I did. Y-You know, it wasn't cool. And I guess I was trying—
  Kenny: (coldly) To impress your friends by picking on the new kid who didn't have any.
  Anthony: Yeah. Yeah, okay, I'm sorry. I just... I can... I can... I can imagine what it must have felt like.
  Kenny: Oh, you can imagine? Okay, go ahead.
  Anthony: (bewildered) Uh, go ahead and?
  Kenny: Tell me how it felt.
  Anthony: (nervously) Well, like, not, uh, great?
  Kenny: Then you wouldn't know. Because no one's ever been such a piece of SHIT TO YOU! Well, maybe it's time you found out.
• Ungrateful Bastard: To Robby. Robby took a chance on him when Kreese refused to let him join the dojo and showed him how to defend and stand up for himself. Kenny's response later is to turn on Robby when Robby finally sees through Kreese and Silver's manipulations, to the point that being near him sets Kenny off.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Kenny is the latest in the long line of nice but geeky kids who turned to Cobra Kai to learn how to stand up to their bullies. But their methodologies morphed them into being overly aggressive.
• Unknown Rival:
  • In Season 5, Kenny considers himself to be a rival to Eli on his level and is eager to prove himself against him. Eli, on the other hand, doesn't think very highly of Kenny and considers him just another Cobra Kai punk who talks a big game but can't actually back it up.
  • Also to Robby. Kenny clearly hates Robby for leaving Cobra Kai, and, in his words, "lying" to him. Robby can only feel nothing but sorrow and heartbreak that Kenny has been completely brainwashed by Cobra Kai's philosophy and Terry Silver himself. When the brawl breaks out in Cobra Kai's Encino dojo, Kenny declares Robby as his target, even though the latter doesn't want to fight him.
• Unstoppable Rage: He is completely out to kill Robby for "betraying" him, Anthony for his bullying (which he genuinely feels remorseful for) and the rest of the Miyagi-Fangs in the Season 5 finale, and only snaps out of this thanks to Anthony showing him the footage that Silver bribed the ref to help Cobra Kai win the All-Valley tournament.
• Villain Respect: He has hints of this towards Miguel in Season 5. Kenny disputes Hawk's title of All-Valley Champion because in his words, Hawk's only the champion because Diaz got hurt. His acknowledgement of Miguel's skills is best shown where even with Robby or a whole gang of Cobra Kai students by his side, Kenny is visibly scared at the prospect of fighting Miguel.
• Villainous Underdog: In Season 5, Kenny is Cobra Kai's top male student, but he's far below the likes of Miguel, Hawk, and Robby in terms of age, size, and experience. He's only able to beat Hawk at the Sekai Taikai qualifier by fighting dirty and having a bought off referee on his side.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Has sort of this dynamic with Kyler. Even after Kenny proves himself to be worthy of the dojo (and that was after punching Kyler in the face after the latter mocks him for his cowardice), Kyler continues to haze him by using him as a bus boy at the drive-in theater. However, they do act civil to each other at the dojo, and upon Cobra Kai's victory, are seen celebrating together when Terry Silver makes his speech.
• Weak, but Skilled: Kenny lacks in physical strength, especially compared to the other fighters. However, he has excellent speed and is a very fast learner.