Headscratchers / Cobra Kai

General

Did Johnny ever marry Shannon?

• Not a plothole, just curious, but does Johnny ever say he married Shannon? This Very Wiki can't seem to decide. Shannon's character profile says she's Johnny's ex-wife, while the recap for episode 4 calls her his ex-girlfriend.
  • Johnny's dialogue with Ali in Season 3 implies no: "this girl I was dating got pregnant." He also told Tommy that he was never able to open up to another girl after Ali, which would be sort of strange if he was married.
  • Robby's last name being "Keene" and not "Lawrence" says "never married" and also alludes to how Johnny was never there for Robby.

Miyagi's Age

• The gravestone for Mr. Miyagi shown displays his birth year as 1925. I know that's older than the actor who portrayed him, but that's still way too young. This guy is a World War II vet. If he was born in 1925 that makes him fourteen when the war started! Granted, he'd be twenty one when the war ended which is old enough for fighting age, but are we expected to believe that the USA accepted Japanese immigrants in the middle of the war and then accepted them as soldiers? In addition to just his military service (funnily enough mentioned on the same tombstone as his age) there's the canon established in Karate Kid: Part 2 where they say he left Okinawa 45 years ago. The movie takes place in 1985, so forty five years ago would make 1940 (give or take a few), which at least is before the USA entered the war. That would make it a fifteen year old Miyagi who got into a death match with his best friend over a girl and then emigrated to a foreign country, got married to a second woman and fought in a war. They should have made him at least five years older.
  • While the timeline of the events would be compressed, it wouldn't be impossible. The US entered WWII at the tail end of 1941, with the Japanese interment camps beginning in 1942 and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which Mr. Miyagi was a member of, being formed in 1943. That means he could've married young before enlisting when he turned 18 in 1943.
    • Even before the US got directly involved in the war, they were indirectly involved in the war. Part of the reason Japan went on the offensive against them was because the US had an oil embargo on Japan. I just struggle to imagine the US would actively accept immigrants from Japan and then allow them to enlist in their army if they're simultaneously paranoid enough about Japanese incursions that they'd imprison their own citizens of Japanese descent. I expect the 442nd Regiment was made up of people who were born in the US or had been living there for at least a few years, not someone who is fresh off a boat and can barely speak the language.
    • While the 442nd was primarily comprised of Nissei (first generation Japanese Americans whose parents were immigrants), there were a small number of Issei (Japanese nationals who immigrated to the US) who were in the regiment. The regiment was assigned to the European theater precisely because of the paranoia surrounding possible spies.
  • People lied to get into the military. The youngest that got away with it (initially) was *12 years old*, named Calvin Graham. It was a lot easier to get away with stuff like that back then. The recruitment office may have thought he looked old enough, or didn't care, plus there was also potential benefit to enlisting native Japanese speakers.
  • For what it's worth, the Karate Kid Wiki shows the marriage battle took place in 1943 and that's when Miyagi emigrated from Okinawa to Hawaii (which seems implausible) and that the US sought Japanese American recruits by that time.

Searching online for solutions

• With the technological resources the West Valley High students had, it never occurred to them to look up a dojo online? Given the setting of the series, and its general population, there ought to be several martial arts schools around.
  • You mean before the start of the series? Simply put, no, it didn't. While once a cherished activity, season 1 several times makes clear that it had fallen out of fashion in the Valley (note the repeated statements about the difficulties the tournament has been having). Plus social shifts in the time since the original movies meant that most of the students and some of their parents were probably repeatedly chastised with "Violence is always wrong" growing up... look how Hawk's mother dealt with his being bullied, she seemed at a loss for anything to counsel him with and for anything to do other than calling and complaining to the school, and then just sort of halfheartedly accepting their useless promise of a solution. Taking steps to prepare and fight back simply straight up did not occur to most of them because Johnny to some extent had a point that the generation he was training had been conditioned out of having a backbone.
    • A lot of this lack of a backbone has to do with most schools adapting zero-tolerance fighting policies, meaning that if anybody was involved in a fight, they were suspended. This included if you were just defending yourself (like Sam and Demetri after the season 2 school brawl). This meant that bullies were able to physically torment kids who were scared of fighting back - not scared of physical confrontation, but scared of the consequences of being out of school for weeks. Some even adapted "zero-tolerance bullying" policies, which was generally enforced as a zero-tolerance "being mean" policy, meaning if you said something that could be in some way construed as bullying, and word got out to the school staff, that could also result in you being punished...even if somebody was mercilessly verbally harassing you and you gave them some of their own medicine back at them (like Sam in season 3 episode 4). Whether you were the actual bully or their target, both would always get the same punishment. As one might predict, this resulted in many good kids being trampled on out of fear that they would be punished if they stood up for themselves. The inconsistent enforcement and reporting also meant that many bullies didn't get the punishment they deserved, especially if their bullying didn't escalate into a fight.
  • Which makes the latter half of second season an economy-sized keg of crystal-clear Fridge Horror, because the unbalanced backbone conditioning ended up tipping in the other direction.
  • Also, there are almost certainly other West Valley High students who study at other dojos already, but if they're already in other dojos, they're not going to be involved in the plot anyway. They might appear as background characters in the All-Valley or some such, but they would have no reason to get involved in the Miyagi-Do/Cobra Kai (and later Eagle Fang) karate war.

Johnny being a friendless kid

• I obviously understand the parental issues faced by child Johnny Lawrence, but the fact that he was a friendless child kind of baffled me. He was filthy rich, decently good looking, and didn't seem to have disorders like autism or ADHD (since those were unknown, he'd be seen as some sort of weirdo/freak), for example. Like, why didn't baby Johnny have any friends?
  • His stepfather mentions he regularly brawls and beats other kids up. Clearly, Johnny had issues that made other children stay away from him.
  • There isn't a lot to go with apart from the flashback from "Quiver" but it seems that pre-Cobra Kai Johnny was a bit of a quiet introverted kid, whose mother seemed to move them around prior to marrying Sid. It isn't hard to imagine that might lead to a somewhat friendless and troubled childhood.

How well known is Johnny's alcoholism?

• Something I've realized is that there are actually very few people who have run into Johnny when he's absolutely smash drunk: Yasmine, Moon, and Sam (however he was a stranger to them at the time); Bert (who notably says to Hawk and Aisha, "...I'm just so used to seeing him drunk..."); Carmen; Daniel; and Bobby. Which got me wondering about just how many people in Johnny's life are aware that he even has a drinking problem.
  • He does mention to Miguel that he was out on a three-day bender just before Robby was born while grieving his mother's death, but does Miguel know that he's still regularly drinking at that same level over sixteen years later? (Miguel was present for Bert, Hawk, and Aisha's previously mentioned conversation, but he wasn't really paying attention to it.) Johnny was aware of Shannon's alcoholism and seems to know that Robby was aware of it, too. So, it's likely that Shannon and Robby are aware of Johnny's own alcoholism. (Even if Johnny was never around and thus Robby never witnessed Johnny drunk firsthand, Shannon could've told him about his dad's drinking habits and that could be what she worries is her contribution to turning Robby against Johnny.)
  • When Johnny finds out that Robby is living with Daniel, he comes home drunk and Carmen has to help him.
  • Daniel has witnessed Johnny drunk or drinking in the middle of the day not once but twice. Then Johnny, Daniel, Amanda, and Carmen all get drunk together at a restaurant, but it's unclear if Daniel realizes that the excessive drinking is actually a regular thing for Johnny.
  • So, is it safe to assume that most of the people close to Johnny are aware of his alcoholism? If so, how come no one has ever suggested he try and seek help? Especially Daniel, Bobby, or Carmen. Has it really not occurred to any of these people who regularly encourage Johnny and Robby to try and repair their relationship that Johnny's alcoholism is an underlying issue that might need to be addressed before any real progress can be made?
    • Has Daniel ever even seen Johnny drunk when he himself wasn't drinking with him? It's not clear at all if Bobby knows how much Johnny drinks. Of the adults, Carmen probably knows the best but she's wary of Johnny anyway for most of the first three seasons.
  • Considering that Bert, a character that isn't super close with Johnny, is so used to seeing him drunk because he's seen him drunk so many times, it's safe to assume that characters who are closer to him have seen him drunk a lot too and therefore know he has a drinking problem.

What is the exact timeline of Cobra Kai? Especially S 3 and S 4

• One user on Reddit said that S4 is set around December 2018 - May 2019 but I was little confused by that because I saw there are iPhone 11s in S4 which obviously wouldn't come out until like September 2019. So I wonder what's the exact timeframe of Cobra Kai.
  • This can't be true, the poster for the 51st All Valley tournament clearly says May 18, 2019, which means S4 ends in 2019.

Why are so many of the kids unaware that Daniel was poor when he was their age?

• I noticed that when he interacted with Robby and Miguel, he told them about his upbringing. That they both seemed genuinely surprised that he was a poor kid considering that how wealthy he is now.
  • It's significantly harder to become a rich adult with a poor upbringing than it is to become a rich adult with a rich background, so a lot of people tend to assume rich adults already came from wealthy backgrounds.
  • As for awareness, how would they know if they weren't told? As for surprise, people widely assume someone wealthy or who appears wealthy just inherited it. A lot of people assume a business owner of any kind is wealthy even though they could easily have a substantially negative net worth.

Why didn't Aisha and the Robinsons try harder to act as mediators to bridge the gap between Daniel and Johnny?

• Aisha and the Robinsons had been close family friends with Daniel and the LaRussos for over a decade, and were clearly people Daniel trusted and were on very good terms with. Due to Johnny's status as Aisha's sensei, the Robinsons were on very good terms with him too. Why didn't they try harder to act as mediators to bridge the gap between the two, especially when tensions between the two dojos started escalating a lot during Season 2? Sure it may not have worked but it was at least worth a try given how bad things were getting between Daniel and Johnny and their respective dojos right?
  • Certainly that Sam and Aisha are friends would help in Sam's case when it came to coming clean with her parents about her relationship with Miguel. If Sam told her parents about how she's dating Miguel, and Daniel (inevitably) forbids her from going on more dates with Miguel, she could shoot back with "So does that mean I can't be friends with Aisha anymore, Dad? Because she's taking lessons from Cobra Kai too."
    • Exactly. And Mr. and Mrs. Robinson, who like I mentioned were close friends with Daniel and his family for over a decade, should've tried to get him and Johnny to sit down and talk to each other to bridge the gap between the two, if for no other reason than the fact that all the chaos between the two men and their dojos could catch their own daughter in the crossfire.
    • They could. But it would end in failure, because while Aisha's parents know the LaRussos, they don't really know Johnny as anything other than Aisha's karate instructor. So they're not in a position to understand Johnny's side of things, unlike someone like Ali, who does.
    • Yeah you're right it probably would end in failure, which is why I said that it may not have worked but it was still at least worth a try. Still though from what Mrs. Robinson said to all the parents at the beach in Season 2, she clearly feels a tremendous amount of gratitude to Johnny for what he did for Aisha, which has me thinking that Mr. and Mrs. Robinson would give a fairer assessment to Johnny's side than you might expect.
  • It would also have helped when Moon was trying to get the students from the two dojos to come together if she had gotten Sam and Aisha to reconcile, as that would've opened the grounds for the girls to bridge the gap between the sides (something like this did eventually happen in season 3 when Sam and Miguel reconciled, and thus were able to get Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang to come together).
    • True, but I'm asking more about the adults here, Johnny and Daniel specifically. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson could've at least tried to act as mediators to bridge the gap between these two friends of theirs.

Sam's age

• Is it me or is the show confused about what Sam's age is? In season 2 episode 8, Daniel is going through a scrapbook and we see an invitation for Sam's first birthday. The card reads "Oct. 14, 2003". This means Sam's birthday is in early to mid October, and she was born in 2002. Problem is, season 1 begins in late summer/early fall of 2017, and at the end of season 3, we are in December of 2018. Thing is, if was born in 2002, that would mean she was 14 in the first three episodes of season 1, and turned 15 after episode 3. But that's kinda hard to believe when Sam is driving a car in season 1, so she had to have been 16. This could be explained away as a writing goof, and Sam's birthday is actually October of 2001, making her turn 16 in October of season 1 and 17 in October of season 3...
  But this also doesn't work either. If Sam's birthday was October 14, 2001, she would have turned 16 in season 1 right before Halloween. Except that can't work, can it? In episode 2 Yasmine says she needs Moon or Sam to pick her up for school since her car got totaled in the hit and run. We can determine that this is the first day of school because at the same time we see Miguel coming to the cafeteria and sitting with Demetri and Hawk for the first time. So episode 2, must have been the first day of school, which is clearly in late August for West Valley High given dates we see in season 3 during the aftermath of the school brawl. So Sam was driving by early September at the latest. But that's not possible if her birthday is in October.
  • We know from context she's 16 early on into Season 1, based on the fact that she's driving without parental supervision, and she says to Daniel that she hasn't done karate in 8 years, when she was 8. This could make her an old-age sophomore.

Hawk having absolutely no friends except for Demetri pre-Cobra Kai

• In a flashback during Season 2 Episode 5, Hawk (then Eli) is shown crying and saying that he was "never gonna have any friends besides Demetri". For obvious reasons, I can buy that he was a lot less popular before becoming Hawk than he was after becoming Hawk, but it honestly seems like (at least) Bert, Chris, and Aisha (and probably some others) were nice enough kids to be friends with Eli even before his transformation, so why didn't he become friends with them? Also, sort of to the same point, the call Eli's mom made to Counselor Blatt was clearly right before the announcement scene from back in Season 1 where Counselor Blatt (accidentally, because of her incompetence) makes it clear that Eli is the person she's referring to, but by that point Miguel had already been established as one of Eli's friends too, so why did Eli say to his mom that he was "never gonna have any friends besides Demetri" even though Miguel was also already his friend by that point?
  • Could be because Demetri's been his best friend for several years, whereas he's only known Miguel for about two months at this point.
  • Bert, Chris, and Aisha don't start hanging around with Hawk until after they're all in Cobra Kai together. Aisha used to be friends with Sam before Sam started hanging around with Yasmine. After the prank Yasmine pulls, Aisha doesn't seem to have any friends at all because of the bullying, and seems to be considering dropping out of school before she joins Cobra Kai. Bert may just be small for his age, but he also seems to be at least two years younger than the others, so their paths probably didn't cross (think about it, did you hang out with upper classmen when you were a freshman?). Some kids, especially bullied kids, only have one or two good friends they associate with and everyone else is a school acquaintance.
  • Eli is a nerd and quite introverted. In school, introverts see all the popular kids with all their friends and want that, but introverts don't even define "friend" the same way as those popular kids (extroverts). He might know Miguel for several months before he considers him a friend. As a teenager, he most likely doesn't understand this.
  • Absolutely. For many introverts, a "friend" isn't just someone you hang out with occasionally, but someone you really trust and can confide in. He and Miguel may be friendly, but they're not friends. Big difference.

Johnny realizing he was an asshole back during the events of the first film

• When Johnny told Miguel his version of the events between him and Daniel in the original Karate Kid, it's clear he views Daniel as the bad guy/real bully of their feud and that he truly believes every word of what he's saying. However, he later makes it clear, especially in his conversation with Kreese that ends with him expelling Kreese from Cobra Kai, that he believes the "No Mercy" part of the Cobra Kai ethos turned him into an asshole and a bully, wouldn't the mere recognition/acknowledgement that he was an asshole and bully because of Kreese's guidance and the "No Mercy" philosophy Kreese pushed on him necessarily mean (by extension) that he acknowledges that he was the bad guy in the original films? It seems contradictory to both believe that what he did in the first film was right and that he was also an asshole and bully at the same time, yet apparently Johnny believes both.
  • Character development, yo. From the first season to the second season, especially after Miguel wins the tournament by beating the hell out of Robbie and taking advantage of his injury, Johnny has had a change of heart and is trying to do better. Seeing his students go through what he went through makes him reconsider the "no mercy" stance, and that life isn't strictly black or white, and it's not a war as Kreese teaches. None of the characters in the show is all good or all bad (except Kreese, and even he has a Freudian Excuse), so Johnny can still see himself as the "hero" of the first film, or at least not the bad guy, and admit he made some mistakes.

Why does Carmen always blame Johnny for situations involving fighting that Miguel gets into?

• This happens twice: the first time is when Miguel gets into a fight with Kyler and the gang at the Halloween dance. Johnny finds Miguel injured and beings him back to his home. Understandably Carmen gets freaked out but becomes angry at Johnny instead of trying to understand what really happened and wanting the assailants to be punished. Then Johnny has to beg for her forgiveness, when honestly he really didn't have to in the first place. He didn't do anything wrong. The other time is after the school brawl, when Miguel got kicked over the railing by Robby. Everyone's upset, naturally. Except she gets mad at Johnny and berates him, that before all this, Miguel was different and pacifistic. She then says "Now look what you did". Yes, Johnny may have trained Miguel and he has turned different as a result of joining Cobra Kai. Sure, he may have become somewhat more aggressive but he has become more confident, made friends, and is no longer bullied, but kudos to her for acknowledging this in the season 2 premiere.
  • At the end of the day, Miguel is still a kid, while Johnny is supposed to be his teacher. Furthermore, Johnny's philosophy has been poor and inconsistent. He taught Miguel all of the bad things he learned from Kreese back in the 1980s. After witnessing his son fall victim to the natural outcome of his teachings, Johnny abruptly reprimanded his students for doing exactly what he taught them do, even trying to cover his ass by pretending that his backtracking was actually what he always intended. To make matters even worse, by the time Johnny decides that there are "grey areas" he fails to elaborate any further, which led Miguel to show mercy to Robby after the situation had already spiraled out of control. Johnny very clearly is still learning the ropes right alongside Miguel, as opposed to just teaching him.
  • Carmen laid it out clearly. Before Johnny, Miguel avoided fighting even when bullied. 1) When Johnny carried beaten-to-a-pulp Miguel home after the party, it was probably quickly revealed that Miguel tried Karate moves he wasn't ready for. No matter how you slice it, the fault goes to his teacher. 2) Miguel was put in a coma and nearly killed in a flat out dojo-dojo war that he certainly wouldn't have been involved in had not he become Johnny's student.

Taking a Chill Pill

• Daniel's impulsive nature had been causing him and the people around him life altering (and sometimes endangering) problems since high school. To his credit, he admits he's a hothead, but given this trait of his seems immune to conventional character development, would it be possible for him to get therapy and medication to stop him constantly making the same mistakes? And if it is, why didn't Amanda recommend this at some point before or during the show?
  • Because it hasn't been such a big deal between 1985 and the present. Sure, he's impulsive, but when not in life-or-death situations, and with his wife and Mr. Miyagi in his corner, his impulsivity probably hasn't gotten him into any really big problems.

Why is Bert allowed to fight in official tournaments with his glasses on?

Ok, it's a light contact competition with (allegedly) no KOs, but the contestants still get hit in the face multiple times. It's a basic safety rule in any martial art.

• Probably artistic license.

Season 1

Consequences of the lunchroom brawl

• How did Miguel manage to avoid any consequences from the fight in the lunchroom? Sure, his grandmother covered for him with his mother, but the whole fight was recorded on multiple smartphones and probably posted all over social media. Even if Kyler's gang were clearly the aggressors, most schools have a zero tolerance policy towards fighting on school grounds and will usually suspend everyone involved regardless of who started it. Not to mention there'd be backlash upon Johnny and the Cobra Kai dojo from the angry parents of those on the receiving end of Miguel's wrath.
  • The series shows that the people running the school aren't exactly competent at stopping any bullying or disciplining the kids. They are either hopelessly naïve or completely oblivious in general as well.
  • Judging from the cheering that Miguel got from his peers, he was far from Kyler's only target. As a result, there would not be much backlash to them getting some Laser-Guided Karma.
  • Miguel could probably get a bunch of witnesses to say it was self defense four on one. The other students hate Kyler so much they will easily line up to back him up. Sam in particular might have vouched for him, seeing as the whole altercation started as a result of her confronting Kyler over his sexual harassment of her.
  • The entire fight was caught on camera and it clearly shows that Kyler was the one acting aggressive. He shoves Miguel twice, and raises his fist to Miguel before Miguel fights back. All Miguel does at first is say, "Hey Kyler, why don't you shut the hell up and stop being such an asshole?" Kyler didn't and threw a punch. And while Miguel counters, it's Kyler who keeps the fight going by tackling him. After that the fight is simply Miguel defending himself from Kyler's gang.
  • Most of these don't really matter, since as later seen with the school brawl, most schools punish everyone involved in a fight without regard to who initiated hostilities, who threw the first punch, or even if the assaulted party defended themselves or just let themselves be wailed on. It's the easy no-thought method of approaching handling such situations that a school run like that one obviously is would go for. Miguel probably had to serve some detentions or "in school suspension" or some such thing, and just did so offscreen.
  • Kyler's gang has been terrorizing the school way more than anyone in 2018 would be permitted. If they've turned a blind eye to it so far, nothing happening in a lunch room is likely to change that until someone ends up in the hospital.
  • The mishandling of the cafeteria fight is intentional as the school administrators (Counselor Blatt in particular) are depicted as ignorant and out of touch when it comes to dealing with fights and bullying, especially to lay the groundwork for future seasons, including the school brawl at the end of season 2 (in real life, when Tory hijacked the intercom and threatened to kill Sam, a school like this would instantly go into lockdown before Tory got anywhere near Sam because it would be assumed that Tory has a gun and is about to shoot up the school). They can't even handle bullying properly, let alone school fights.
    • As for why Miguel wasn't suspended for the cafeteria fight, whereas everyone involved in the school brawl was, the school fight was a bigger, messier brawl that gained the attention of both law enforcement and local media. While the cafeteria fight might've gone viral online, no one nearly died there. The school probably wasn't receiving anywhere near the sort of criticism that they were getting after the all-out school fight. Those suspensions were most likely just a formality so that administration looked like they were actually doing something about the fight, especially when there are angry parents like the LaRussos are in a position to sue the school.

Protective gear in Tournament

• Do karate tournaments really allow matches without protective gear? This troper used to do tournaments and we had protective head gear and pads on our feet and hands, is it a case of Rule of Cool or do martial arts tournaments (especially under 18 matches) really allow non protected strikes to the face?
  • It is probably a Rule of Cool. No martial arts tournament with a sane legal and PR department would have matches without protective gear, especially if the combatants are under eighteen.
  • It's also a fact of shooting—they have to be able to see the subjects' faces.
  • This tournament from Norway in 2012 does not feature headgear so it's not totally unrealistic.
    • Cobra Kai's tournament pays homage to the original Karate Kid series' tournaments, which in turn were inspired by the early 60's to 70's Karate Tournament scene in America, which indeed was done bare knuckle, no pads, and contact was plentiful with blood, broken bones and injuries being commonplace, this was the type of tournament Chuck Norris competed in. Pat Johnson, who choreographed The Karate Kid and trained all the Cobras in Tang Soo Do, was one of Chuck Norris' greatest students and a veteran of those tournaments as well.

Consequences for past bad behavior

• Is it fair to call Robby a Karma Houdini despite developing into a good guy? He never seems to face any grave consequences for his bad behavior or any legal trouble.
  • Since the other young characters have been made to face the consequences of their misconduct that first season, it's not a stretch to say that his time is coming, either.
  • Part of the theme of the series is that people who do bad things are rarely just dicks for no reason. The idea is Robby's bad behavior, from skipping school to stealing, arises from his misery at his shitty home life, and that he stops being a bad person when his life improves. I would say he's not getting out of karma for one thing because it's not like his life was ever great in the first place, for another reason because he actively works to improve his life and move away from his prior behavior (meaning he's trying to earn his happy ending), and for another because karma DOES bite him for awhile when he briefly disappoints and alienates the father figure he's so longed for.
  • On that note, whether we learn the truth about Kyler, who seems to be a dick just For the Evulz, remains to be seen.
  • Season 2's Finale will likely avert this due to severely injuring Miguel and running away from the scene.
  • In this troper's opinion, character changes happen extremely quickly on this show. Hawk went from having too little confidence to too much confidence in about the span of three seconds.
    • That has more to do with the passage of time for at least Season 1. Months pass between quite a few episodes so what seems blatantly quick to the viewer is happening over the course of several weeks and months to the characters.

The South Seas apartment building

• In The Karate Kid Part III, Daniel and Miyagi return home from Okinawa to find the South Seas apartment building being demolished. But over 30 years later in Cobra Kai, Daniel finds it in better shape than when he actually lived there, and no mention of any restoration is ever made. Did the showrunners just not do their homework, or is this a retcon on their part?
  • An argument could be made for having the original building demolished, then reconstructed (not restored). It's probably grasping at straws, but it's a legitimate (albeit admittedly unlikely) possibility.
  • We could also argue that The Karate Kid Part III was told from the memories of an adult Daniel and through several years' time he got some details wrong. If the building was shut down for relatively major renovation, he could easily have misremembered it as having been torn down.
  • I get the impression that Part III is Broad Strokes. Daniel's second All Valley Tournament win, Mr. Miyagi's attempt at starting the bonsai tree business, and the existence of Terry Silver and Mike Barnes are all canon, but the rest of the film might not be. Even at that the bonsai tree business is referenced more as a Take That! and Johnny mentions that he doesn't even know who Terry Silver is.
  • Well Johnny really has no reason to know who Terry Silver is as he never met him.
  • The South Seas apartment building isn't being demolished, it's being converted into "Reseda Hills Condominiums" by "Maxim Development". Maybe the company went belly up and the apartments were restored. Or it's even possible it simply became "South Seas Condominiums", where the apartments were mildly refurbished and sold for grossly inflated amounts— which tended to happen IRL.

In-universe legality of the Crane Kick

• In-universe, what is the official status of the Crane Kick? Johnny deems it an illegal kick when he gripes to Daniel at the dealership, yet he has no qualms about instructing Miguel to use it, and it is ruled a point both times it is used in competition. So then why even bring up its legality to begin with? Is it just bitterness on Johnny's part?
  • Daniel might've had the tournament rule book amended to officially make the kick legal in the years between the film and the series.
  • Given the amount of legal headshots that show up in the finale, I'd say that the kick was legal, and Johnny's just having sour grapes.
    • Nah, I think the comment above is more likely right. Daniel amending the tournament rules to allow head contacts specifically because in his mind it would have legitimized his use of the Crane Kick retroactively is definitely fitting with the ego he's clearly developed in the years since the tournament. It also makes Johnny telling Miguel to use it even more of a Take That! at Daniel, in that case... it's him saying "Hey, you legalized it, it's free to use now." Plus Johnny's comment of it being an illegal contact is a reference to something that people have been saying about the original for years, to the point of people having to suppose that Daniel possibly made contact with Johnny's chest passingly before kicking him in the head.
  • In the first Karate Kid movie, Ali explains the rules to Daniel before the tournament: "Everything above your waist is a point. You can hit the head, sternum, kidneys, ribs." Furthermore, during the tournament montage, several Cobra Kai members win points by kicking their opponents' faces; in fact, Johnny wins a point in this way and Dutch wins a point by kicking Daniel in the face. Therefore, the crane kick was perfectly legal. As for why Johnny is still bitter about the crane kick, it's most likely due to the fact that the crane kick is a flashy but impractical move that is easily countered as demonstrated by Chozen in the second Karate Kid film yet Johnny lost to it. It also doesn't help that during the match Daniel had an injured leg and Johnny could have easily won the third point and thus the match by taking advantage of Daniel's injury (as Miguel did Robby's) instead of running straight into Daniel's kick.
  • Maybe the Kick itself wasn't illegal, but the force with which Daniel made contact is. One assumes the tournament has rules for the striking to unnecessarily injure your opponent (doesn't Johnny actually "mime" some of his point-earning blows against other opponents?) Daniel's kick left Johnny writhing on the ground; maybe Johnny felt that was more force than tournament rules allowed for.

Wax On Wax Off: Training as labor

• OK, so your new student is on the payroll and therefore on the clock at your dealership. Do you really think it's a smart idea to use your workplace to impart Wax On, Wax Off on him? While his outburst would be valid grounds for termination in Real Life, Robby isn't exactly off base about calling out Daniel's approach.
  • Robby's a teenager freshly employed at a car dealership. The cars need to be washed and waxed, and at that stage he's probably not qualified for much more than brute labor. Besides, it's not like Daniel's expecting him to come in on his off-hours and do it for free; he's on the payroll. As for Robby's outburst, Daniel was obviously expecting Robby to get upset since he reacted much the same with Mr. Miyagi, and lets it slide because he's looking at it from a master/student perspective rather than boss/worker.
  • Once your students connect the dots about the Hidden Purpose Test, they won't be complaining.
  • If the headscratcher is referring to other students doing free labor, remember, he is giving lessons for free, so the students are getting a better deal. Additionally, Robby is getting free housing.

Different standards for disqualification

• Why does Hawk get disqualified from his match immediately for a single illegal contact to Robby, but when Miguel blatantly and deliberately aggravates Robby's shoulder injury, he gets a warning for what amounts to essentially the same thing. Is this or isn't it a zero-tolerance offense?
  • Because apparently Miguel wasn't breaking any rules (though he got careless enough to be brought to the wire). And we all saw that Robby wasn't one to quit no matter what.
  • Because they're making a distinction between doing something wrong in the heat of the exchange vs just straight-up assaulting your opponent between rounds. With the former, that could be a judgement error or things getting out of hand, but what Hawk did is completely inexcusable.
  • Plus Hawk kicked him in the back and kept trying to go after him while Miguel just yanked his arm the one time.

The Cobra Kai ban from the Tournament

• So, Cobra Kai got themselves banned back in the 80s because one of their fighters DQ'd himself willfully injuring an opponent, and another scored penalties for aggravating the same injury... and then talking their way into reinstatement, pleading that they were a new, better Cobra Kai, their very first tournament they do the exact same thing. How long until they get banned again, especially with Daniel on the board and the reveal that despite Johnny's claim to the contrary, Sensei Kreese is alive, and back in the valley to boot?
  • Seeing as how the other members of the board expressed no idea that the ban actually was there (some of who might not have been born yet), as well as the fact that Johnny wasn't pleased with the results, don't hold your breath.
  • The other members of the board weren't even sure that bans were a thing they could do until this one was brought up, and the only other member that supports the idea of the ban does it not because he agrees with it, but because Daniel says so. Plus they don't have a lot of incentive to ban Cobra Kai again... while one of their members got disqualified and the other warned, their sensei obviously was not happy with them over it, very publicly and loudly chastising Hawk for his behavior. There's also the fact that the tournament they were in was apparently the most successful one in years, if not a decade, and they were a big, flashy spectacle that people clearly enjoyed; banning them would be like the tournament shooting itself in the foot. The obvious and rational thing to do is to let the dojo compete (especially considering it's not even really the same Cobra Kai that was previously banned, just using the name), and simply deal with any individual fighters that break the rules.
  • Cobra Kai may be banned once again, now that Kreese is the full owner again at the end of Season 2. It is likely that the previous name register for the Cobra Kai business was Kreese, so when Johnny Lawrence retook the name, the documents differ and Johnny stated in the hall meeting that this was a different Cobra Kai. The only difference is that the public foresaw that Johnny was shown displeased with Hawk's actions, unlike Kreese.
    • As of Season 3, Cobra Kai is not shown to be banned from the All Valley yet though the tournament itself was dangerously close to being cancelled before Miguel and Sam's last-minute speech. While Kreese ended up doing his best to save the tournament, this was him speaking to the city council and not the tournament committee, who are in charge of regulating the tournament proper and know exactly what he's like. However, Daniel, needing Kreese and his students to be able to compete so his and Johnny's dojo can fight them there and defeat Cobra Kai for good, will most likely convince the other committee members to lift his ban even though he'd prefer not to.

Cobra Kai being banned from the All Valley makes no sense

• It would make sense, but after the loss in 1985 it seems like Cobra Kai had immediately permanently disbanded until Johnny reopened it in 2017, and both Kreese and Silver (and probably Barnes) disappeared into obscurity. Why would the All Valley board ban a dojo that no longer existed?
  And what was the point of banning Mike Barnes? He had to be close to seventeen in 1985. He wouldn't be eligible to compete again anyway (and since he lost, he wouldn't be able to enter anyway in order to defend his title even after turning eighteen.
  Daniel could've instated the ban when he joined the All Valley board but, again, why? Unless he joined the board in 1985 (which, he probably didn't), Cobra Kai had been off the map for years, possibly even decades, by the time he wanted to enact the ban. But he was clearly surprised to see it pop up again in season 1, so he apparently wasn't expecting it to come back anyway. So was the ban even Daniel's doing? If so, then how come none of the other current board members knew about it? Sure, board members come and go, but there's seriously not one member left on that board who's been a part of it for longer or simply just as long as Daniel? It's possible that he tricked the other board members into agreeing to the ban without realizing it, but, again: why?
  • Banning Cobra Kai as a whole was likely part of the board doing their due diligence to ensure there was no way Kreese, Silver, or Barnes could have any future involvement in the tournament. Kreese could have easily just had a figurehead be the dojo's sensei while he ran things behind the scenes, so banning the dojo as a whole would be a logical way to stop any loopholes like that in the same vein banning any successor dojos did. And while Barnes may have been too old to compete, he could've returned as a coach and caused more trouble were he not banned.
  • Someone had to make a case for the ban being put in place (seeing as Johnny had to make a case for the ban being lifted), so whichever board member was given that task should've found through their research that Cobra Kai technically doesn't even exist anymore.
  • In the overall story, it also doesn't even really impact the story that much at all. Like, in that episode, they could have gone without it. It was probably there because the writers wanted Daniel to glare at Johnny, needed to make up something else to cut to while Sam and Miguel were on their date, or they needed to do some way of telegraphing to the audience Johnny's lack of knowledge of who Terry Silver is for his return in season 4.
  • Banning a dojo that had disbanded would be a simple thing to do since there would be nobody to fight it. And considering the gross violations of sportsmanship of the final fight, the committee had to do some major damage control. Barnes punched Daniel in the face outside the rules and should have been immediately disqualified. While there's nothing in The Karate Kid Part III that's explicit about the matter, the referee ignores so many glaring fouls that it's reasonable to suspect he was actually paid off (something supported by the fact that Silver pays off the All-Valley referee to rig the girls' finals match between Sam and Tory, and he does the same thing in season 5 during the Sekai Taikai qualifying matches).

Popularity of karate in the Valley

• How the heck is Karate the big unifying force of this world? Johnny apparently never recovered from his defeat and Daniel has been able to ride the coattails of the Tournament well into adulthood to great success. Does MMA, for that matter UFC or any similar circuit, not exist?
  • Willing Suspension of Disbelief. Pretty much a requirement when enjoying most fiction.
  • Is Daniel really "riding" it? Most infomercials are based around lame gimmicks - given a choice between dressing in a ridiculous Halloween costume to sell your used cars, or making a theme out of your high school karate trophies, it seems like an easy pick.
    • Exactly. Few people actually realize why Daniel uses karate imagery in his branding - most assume it's just another gimmick and are surprised to learn that Daniel has any experience with it. Look how off guard Tom Cole reacts when Daniel spin kicks his Boba tea.
  • As Daniel's wife said, karate was one of the valley's honored pastimes, much like how football is in Texas.
  • Two theories: First, the school has an unusually large bullying problem. Secondly, karate fights fit in well with the YouTube culture and Miguel's take-down of Kyler's gang impressed a lot of people.
  • A lot of local heroes tend to build small town reputations off 15 minutes of fame (see Daniel). That being said, while the revived Daniel-Johnny rivalry is entertaining, how Johnny's life took such a nosedive is a fascinating nature vs. nurture question. What is confusing is why Kreese would bother to come back after all that happened to Cobra Kai in the three films. It is understandable the series needed a Designated Villain, but the show thrives on the Daniel-Johnny conflict.
    • Because, as shown in Season 2, Kreese is a down-on-his luck drifter who lives in a homeless shelter, and believes that Cobra Kai is his and his chance at regaining glory. And considering his words to Hawk, Kreese probably sees the battle from the original Karate Kid trilogy as still being on (since he never said the battle was over, in his mind it isn't, even after 30 years, with Miyagi's passing being seen as a 'win' in his mind). He also acts as a dark reflection of the kind of person Johnny and Daniel could become if they allow their rivalry to continue: a bitter, broken, and ruthless man who is driven only by pride and desire to see the opponent fail. Besides, as you said, Johnny and Daniel need a common enemy to bring them together and finally put that rivalry aside and become the friends that the test drive and "double date" scenes show us they can become.
• It's paid lip service in Season 3 where it's wondered out loud why the Valley is so enamored with Karate.
• For that matter, *just* the Valley? So (at the east end of it) as soon as you cross the neighborhood boundary from Glendale to Atwater Village, it's suddenly no bigger a deal than it is in the real world?

Black belts already?

• Miguel, Hawk, Aisha, and the other contenders who show up to compete in the tournament are wearing black belts, which in most East Asian martial art schools are a sign of at least a couple of years worth of training (depends on the school; sometimes upwards of several years). Haven't the students only been at the dojo for several months at most?
  • Cobra Kai prioritized fighting more than most other karate schools. Also it's not a stretch to think Johnny registered all his students as "black belt" rank to ensure they were all allowed to participate in the All Valley Tournament (in the first movie, Mr. Miyagi had to steal a black belt for Daniel when he was told that only karatekas of brown belt or higher can be entered into the tournament).

Sam's reaction to what Daniel says about Cobra Kai

• So Daniel talks at that dinner in episode 8 of season 1 about how Cobra Kai was all bad and stuff. Samantha obviously questions it, saying that they can't all be bad and stuff like that. How did Daniel and Amanda not realize Samantha had some personal connection with one of them, given Samantha was defending Cobra Kai so much?
  • This is Daniel's biggest blind spot. You know how Captain Picard blindly hated the Borg until Guinan told him to stop being a bitch and talk to Hugh? Same thing. And considering the ways Johnny brutalized him in The Karate Kid, and everything Terry Silver and Mike Barnes did to him in The Karate Kid Part III, you can't really blame Daniel for this.

Why doesn't Amanda at least let Sam call her friends?

• In season 1 episode 9, when Samantha is grounded, her mother confiscates her electronics. While she's phoneless, her phone picks up numerous texts and messages from Miguel. Did Amanda not see these texts? Was she not all confused as to who this Miguel Diaz was and why he was so desperately trying to contact Samantha? It couldn't hurt her to at least answer one of them and explain, "This is Samantha's mother. She's been grounded, so she won't be able to receive your calls for the next day or so"? And why didn't Samantha beg her mother to let her at least call Miguel? Would've been as simple as "Mom, I'm not trying to ask you to change the punishment. I'm just asking if you'd let me call a friend I'd made plans with, so I can tell him that I'll be unable to attend and that I won't be able to contact him by phone for the time being." Amanda is reasonable and wouldn't want to screw someone over. And since Samantha was planning to come clean with her parents about Miguel when she got grounded, she could get Miguel to come over and introduce himself to them.
  • In the scenario where Miguel comes over, Daniel would still be an issue. He's so insistent that everyone in Cobra Kai is bad that there's no way he would welcome the fact that one of them is Samantha's boyfriend readily. Samantha would likely have to threaten to stop talking to Daniel and give him the silent treatment to get him to come around to accepting Miguel. So the scenario where Amanda answers one of Miguel's calls would be more ideal. Amanda might get suspicious about Miguel's numerous calls (assuming she doesn't decide to answer the phone right away ) and Miguel would probably still be upset to see Samantha and Robby together, but in theory he wouldn't get as angry as quickly because he's not paranoid about Samantha not answering his calls, so maybe they could've talked it out.
  • It doesn't make any sense why Sam couldn't have asked Amanda, "Hey, Mom, I had plans to meet up with some friends tonight. Can you please let me at least text them to tell them I can't make it?" There's no way any parent, especially a reasonable one like Amanda, would deny this request, as it would be unfair for Sam's friends to be waiting on her just because she got grounded. Of course, the reason she didn't is because the writers needed the drama to happen.
    • If anything, Amanda could have responded to one of Miguel's texts just to shut him up in a "This is Sam’s mom. She’s grounded. Stop calling/texting" way. Which is funny when it looks like she actually did. (Admittedly, it was probably just an accident on the take that they used, but you can see Amanda clearly hit the green "accept call" button before she put the phone back in the purse rather than the red "decline call" button).
  • Bringing Miguel and introducing her parents to him would've been a disaster. Daniel would not have been okay with Sam dating anyone from Cobra Kai, much less their star pupil who worships Johnny, at that point in time. Things could've played out differently, but Miguel's already paranoid about Sam not introducing him to her parents thanks to Johnny (and seeing her being friendly with Robby), so that issue wouldn't go away. Granted, Sam had the intention of telling Daniel about Miguel that day when she came home. So what would happen is that this: Sam tells Daniel what a great guy Miguel is and that unlike Kyler, Miguel's the real deal. They invite Miguel over for dinner. Daniel tries to have a conversation without Miguel ever bringing up Cobra Kai or Johnny, which proves impossible because Cobra Kai is a big part of Miguel's life, Miguel loves Johnny, and won't put up with anyone saying anything bad about him, so he gets defensive of Johnny, and the whole thing is a disaster.
    • And if by chance, Miguel happened to be there when Johnny came and found out about how Daniel was training Robby, that would be even more of a disaster because things would play out like this:
    1. Daniel gets upset about his daughter dating and bringing home a Cobra Kai boy AND about Robby not mentioning the fact that he's Johnny's son.
    2. Johnny gets upset at Daniel because his son's at the LaRussos' house, and is offended that Daniel is so mad about Miguel being in Cobra Kai.
    3. In Johnny's rush to defend Miguel and Cobra Kai, he ends up pissing off Robby, who's upset that his dad seems more concerned about defending Miguel than defending his own son.
    4. Which in turn makes Robby even more upset that Sam, who he has a crush on, is off the market as she is dating Miguel.
    5. Miguel gets upset that Daniel doesn't approve of him and possibly lashes out at Johnny for inflaming the situation further by getting into it with Daniel on the spot.
    6. And Sam gets upset at her dad for not reacting well to Miguel, and possibly gets upset at Miguel and Robby for allowing there to be bad blood between them.
    7. Amanda is mad at Daniel for being a grown man who chewed out two kids because he can't get over his 34 year old childhood karate rivalry with another grown man.

  • In the end, the lack of communication issue wasn't the issue in Sam's first breakup with Miguel. That was just a forced situation the writers created to heighten the drama, while the real issue was that Daniel and Johnny's rivalry placed an unnecessary burden on their relationship from two angles. The timing just wasn't right for Sam to be going out with Miguel in season 1, not until Daniel and Johnny forgave and understood each other first. And for Sam and Miguel to grow as people so they could better stand up for each other and their relationship, and not let outside circumstances take over.
  • Amanda wasn't necessarily obligated to let Sam tell her friends she couldn't answer any calls or texts for a while. Sam was being punished so, alright, she's lost her phone privileges. Yes, there's the possibility that her friends might start to get worried, but Miguel could've just stopped by the house and would see that she's safe. If anything, where Amanda is being unfair is that she doesn't really let Sam explain the details of the hit and run. She doesn't seem to know that Sam wasn't even driving, Yasmine was; or that Johnny was parked illegally in the middle of the street, and Johnny's reaction (a large and intimidating man drunkenly pounding on the car windows, pulling on the door latches, shouting at three teenage girls who are alone at night to open their doors) is what understandably spooked the girls into speeding off. Amanda should have at least allowed Sam to explain the situation to her. Instead, she basically just takes Johnny's word for it, when she herself scolded Daniel for trusting Johnny's word about Kyler despite Johnny having no evidence whatsoever to back up what he was saying.
    • The important thing to consider is this: Sam does get in that Yasmine was driving. But all that Amanda needs to know is that Sam kept it from her. Whether or not Sam was responsible is irrelevant, it's that she didn't tell her parents about it. If you're a parent, it's a big deal when your child gets into an accident, and moreso if they try to hide it from you. You want trust and communication between you and your child, especially if they're just starting to drive, because you want to know that you can trust your child to be responsible behind the wheel/be with people who are responsible behind the wheel. And a part of being a responsible driver/passenger is being honest about incidents you are involved in, even ones that aren't your fault.
    • Amanda could have let Sam explain herself more, but the added context would only explain the (good) reason the girls sped off. But it would not help Amanda understand why they didn't report the incident or why Sam didn't tell her parents about it. So even if Amanda knew the full context of what happened, the result would still be the same: Amanda would have grounded Sam for keeping the accident from her and Daniel. However, it could be argued that Amanda cutting off Sam's explanation is the writers' way of sneakily not holding Johnny accountable for his drunk behavior that night, and the fact that he was partially responsible for the accident (Johnny parked his car illegally; if the car wasn’t parked in the street like that, it would not have been hit). It's their way of getting the audience to forget about it and just be like "oh, Sam and her friends were at fault, right? Give him a car, Daniel-san."
  • Perhaps the bigger plot hole is that Sam apparently left home without her phone. Did Amanda really not give Sam her phone when she left to take Robby home? She really should have, since "what if Sam got into an emergency on the way?" Which if she did, would've allowed Sam to, once she left the house, text Miguel and say, "Hey, sorry I haven't been able to reach you. My mom took my phone and grounded me. But my friend snuck me out of the house, so I'm on my way over right now. I'll explain more when I get there." But that's one that exists because the show needs Miguel to act a certain way for the plot to progress, and if the characters could communicate perfectly with one another, the storyline would be halted.
    • Considering that Sam left her house when it's still partially light out, probably around dusk, and we see Miguel checking his phone when it's pitch black out at the party, had Sam texted or called Miguel he would have seen it. But it probably wouldn't have made that much difference, if at all, since Miguel probably would still have assumed in his impaired state that Sam was blowing him off with Robby so. Even if he gotten a heads up at that point the damage probably was already done.
  • Amanda's behavior makes no sense. Clearly someone is trying to contact Sam, and it’s apparently an urgent situation if they keep calling and leaving texts. Just a quick “she’s grounded, call her tomorrow” to Miguel and then hang up would have worked. Especially since Amanda made that whole big case about Sam's “friends” at the pool to Daniel, it stands to reason those friends are trying to get hold of her. On the same token, though, Sam should've just called Miguel and said “I’m grounded, I’m sorry” instead of trying to leave him a text (which takes longer to type), and when her mom comes back she could take the phone and tell Miguel, “she’ll call you tomorrow” or start lecturing Sam so Miguel could hear that there is something going on and she’s not just ignoring him for no reason.
  • This is definitely one of those moments that make absolutely no sense in retrospect and only happens the way it does because it has to happen to advance the plot. Amanda is normally very reasonable and it doesn't really make much sense that she wouldn't allow Sam to give her friends a heads up that she was grounded, or allow Sam to respond after Miguel continuously tries to contact her. Come on, how was Amanda so sure it wasn’t an emergency? If someone is calling Sam that many times in a short amount of time, most people’s first thought would be it was an emergency. Amanda acted very out of character here just so she could be a hardass and Sam couldn’t alleviate some of Miguel’s stress and doubt about what was going on, because that's what the plot needed.
    • Literally everything about Amanda's behavior is out of character for what we’ve seen of her up to this point. She literally lets Sam get away with sneaking friends over for a pool party and borrowing her dad's swim trunks, and even gets mad at Daniel for getting mad at Sam. Yet when she finds out her daughter was involved in a car accident in a car she doesn’t even own or had any control over because she was just a passenger, Amanda suddenly acts like a more 90s-00s parent where when their kid is grounded, they don’t get any interaction with the outside world since that’s how most parents were then. They just never established that as Amanda's way of parenting. She was always super lax, so suddenly being like “nuh uh girl. Your ass is in jail and you can’t do shit because your dad is having issues” just really comes out of nowhere and pretty much sets up all the conflict that happens later. Which is just not fair to Sam. The crash was in no way Sam’s fault. It's not Sam's fault that the car Yasmine hit happened to be driven by Sam's dad's high school tormentor. And remember, the whole reason Amanda found out is because Louie decided to vandalize Johnny's car, Johnny went to the LaRussos' house to confront Daniel about this (because Louie claimed to be acting in Daniel's name), and then it just so happened that that incident came up in Johnny trying to prove Daniel is a bad father. Amanda just needed to discipline someone and her response was very extreme for how little Sam actually had to do with it beyond just being Daniel's daughter, so something she had no control over ended up destroying her relationship with Miguel.
    • The reason you can tell that Amanda's decisionmaking here was based on the needs of the plot is that this is the one time we ever see Amanda act like a hardass. Every other time, she's been very reasonable in how she acted, balancing showing her daughter trust and respect, while also acting like an adult and disciplining her. Grounding Sam, but allowing her to at least contact Miguel and let him know she was grounded is the middle of the road approach, and in line with what one would expect from Amanda based on how she reacts to other situations like the pool party or Sam training the Miyagi-Dos behind her back. Sam didn't tell her parents about a hit-and-run where she wasn't driving, and Johnny was also somewhat at fault. A fair punishment would therefore be to ground her, yet also allow her to let everyone know this. Not to mention Amanda doesn't even punish Sam for avoiding her grounding by going to said party later when Robby busts her out.
    • Possibly just needs of the plot, but Amanda clearly displays shock at Sam's silence in the matter which suggests this particular behavior was well outside Sam's normal behavior.

Sam's ability to pull off a secret relationship

• It's not easy to notice because of the editing in season 1, but Sam dated Miguel for a few months, and they had plenty of pictures and places they went. How exactly did Daniel and Amanda not realize their daughter was going on dates? Where did Sam tell them she was going for months? We see in season 2 that they track her phone, so were they not confused seeing her go to Reseda to pick up Miguel every time they went out because he can't drive?
  • You could treat this whole thing as one big Running Gag. It's like Daniel's at his most oblivious with Sam's relationship with Miguel. They dated for months in season 1 and he doesn't notice. In season 3, he doesn't seem to think about how Sam left with Miguel after the speech to save the tournament, or how Sam only cared about Miguel during his recovery, or her having Miguel's back while he was giving that speech.
    • In the case of "after the speech," Daniel likely did see Sam leave with Miguel, and she told him they were going to Miyagi-Do to unwind. When he catches them making out in the dojo the next morning, Sam only apologizes for not telling him that Miguel was coming over again that morning, not for bringing him over in the first place.
  • They probably were being hands-off here. Teenagers are gonna teenager, which is to say, be secretive. Amanda also was pressuring Daniel to let Sam live her life early on in the season.

What would've happened if Sam recognized Johnny at the dealership?

• So when Johnny was getting his car serviced at Daniel's dealership, he saw Sam turn up and recognized her as the passenger in the backseat of Yasmine's car. But what would've happened if Sam recognized him? Would she tell her dad about the hit-and-run?
  • Sam recognizing Johnny likely would've provided fuel right away for Daniel to dislike Johnny before Johnny's even reopened Cobra Kai because, let's face it, she would probably have started by saying that a large, screaming man was banging on a car full of teenage girls because she would have been too terrified from that part of the incident to even think about mentioning much else that happened. As for her personal life, she'd probably ditch Yasmine and Moon right away or beg them to come clean, and possibly break up with Kyler because she's not longer in with the popular kids anymore. Sam would mend her friendship with Aisha, and they befriend Miguel. Sam would go out with Miguel, introduce him to Daniel, and while Daniel would have reservations about Miguel being in Cobra Kai, he'd try to talk things out with Johnny.

What would have been the best thing for Miguel and Sam to do to keep their relationship in season 1?

• Okay so obviously because it's a show they both made some interesting decisions that led to them breaking up. These decisions were forced upon them partially by Daniel and Johnny. But what could they have done differently though to possibly have had a better outcome? How could Sam have handled not being able to tell her dad about Miguel differently? How could Miguel have handled seeing Sam with Robby differently? Pretend like the show doesn't exist and pretend like the characters could make any decision without needing them to do a certain thing to force the show to progress. How could they have handled this situation better?
  • Miguel and Sam communicating better would have eased the burden, instead of them both trying to carry it alone. If Sam explained to Miguel how Daniel felt about Cobra Kai and that's why she wasn't introducing Miguel to her family, then Miguel and her could have worked through it together. Coupled that with if Miguel had talked to her about seeing Robby at dinner when he came to introduce himself to her family, and why that made it feel like she was ashamed of him and went with someone else that her parents would approve of. Their single biggest issue was that instead of trying to tackle it together they both bottled up their emotions and information that affected their relationship.
  • Sam could've literally introduced Miguel to Daniel. It may be awkward for Sam that her boyfriend is in the exact dojo that tormented her dad during his teenage years, but if Daniel met Miguel, who was an extremely polite and smart kid, before episode 9 that is, he might change his opinion on Cobra Kai.
    • It's not that simple. If Daniel's feelings towards Cobra Kai were mild then it may have been that easy but they were not. He was very adamant about her staying away from Cobra Kai. Coupled with the fact that Kyler turned out to be an asshole and Daniel ignored his dad senses about him, Daniel would be on high alert. They would not be able to lead it with "hey this is my boyfriend Miguel, and he's in Cobra Kai". It would more than likely require a more delicate approach. Trying to introduce Miguel and get them to know each other before he finds out Miguel is in Cobra Kai. Which maybe could have worked. It would be dependent on if Daniel would recognize Miguel since he saw him cleaning the bathroom when he went to Cobra Kai that one day to confront Johnny. Had Daniel found out/realized Miguel was in Cobra Kai relatively soon after being introduced it would very likely have gone poorly. It probably would've ended in Daniel grounding Sam and forbidding her from going on any more dates with Miguel. Daniel didn't just dislike Cobra Kai, he hated them, and at that point anything about Cobra Kai made him irrational which would have likely extended to finding out about Miguel being in Cobra Kai.
    • The only way this may have worked is if Sam and Miguel lied about Miguel being in Cobra Kai until Daniel got to know him better. But the second he learned about Cobra Kai that would have the potential to go very wrong and blow up in their faces, like when Daniel found out Robby was Johnny's son. Daniel's feelings about Cobra Kai at that time was pretty black and white. They couldn't exactly just lie about which dojo Miguel goes to either, since Daniel is on the tournament committee and probably knows most of the senseis for the dojos that participate in the tournament, and could pick that lie apart in five seconds.
  • Sam could've just told Daniel about how Miguel defended her in the cafeteria fight.
    • After Kyler put on a nice guy act with the intention of trying to get into Sam's pants, Daniel is likely to be more suspicious about guys acting a certain way just to score a date with Sam. He is very defensive about his daughter, so if the only thing Sam has to tell him about Miguel's character is the fact that he got into a fight for her when Kyler was spreading rumors about her, Daniel likely would think the only reason Miguel did that is because he was white knighting to gain favor with Sam and get in her pants. He ignored his instincts the first time about Kyler, and look where that got him. These circumstances would look very sketchy to Daniel.
    • While the cafeteria fight wouldn't hurt and it would be a decent start, there would need to be other things said by Miguel and Sam first, like for Sam to explain how respectful Miguel was to her on their first date (in the photo booth, he didn't even put his arm around Sam because he agreed it wasn't a date. She grabbed his arm and put it around herself. Then even when she hurled him to the ground, he said it wasn't a date, and Sam initiated the kiss. All throughout their first "date", Miguel was very respectful of the fact that he said it wasn't a date). Only then would Daniel possibly lower his guard about Miguel.
  • Sam could've mentioned that Aisha is in Cobra Kai and attends classes with Miguel, meaning she can vouch for Miguel's character. Daniel clearly trusts Aisha, and she could probably paint a decent enough picture of Miguel that Daniel might be interested in meeting him.
  • Sam is close to Daniel and knows him very well. He is overprotective and not above intervening in her social life (as we all saw with Kyler). In Kyler's case, Daniel was right about him, and Sam learned from that experience. So she was being extra cautious with Miguel this time around. And with Daniel's deep-seeded bias against Cobra Kai, it's understandable why Sam didn't tell her parents initially. To her credit, she was ready to tell her dad that same day Miguel asked to meet her parents. She came home asking to speak to her dad when Amanda confronted her about the hit and run and grounded her, and she realized it wasn't the best idea to talk to her mother about Miguel at that moment.
  • The timing just wasn't great for them in Season 1. Too many outside factors that actually had nothing to do with their relationship made things difficult for them. Most notably, Daniel and Johnny's rivalry reigniting at the same time. Given the circumstances, the best thing Sam could have done would be to tell Miguel about Daniel's issues with Cobra Kai. Even though Miguel already knows this (thanks to Johnny's biased version of events), having it out in the open would allow them to deal with it together. Still, Daniel's overprotectiveness and bias would make things uncomfortable for them. To complicate matters, the fact that Daniel is training Robby would certainly fuel Miguel's insecurity and jealousy. Robby bonding with Daniel and possibly hanging out at Sam's house would have driven Miguel nuts. Not to mention Miguel fighting dirty in the tournament left a bad impression with Daniel that he wasn't able to shake until late in season 3.
    Sam and Miguel's romance took on the path it did for a reason. Both kids needed to grow and mature in order to overcome the outside forces that seemed to interfere with their romance. Sam needed to mature and be her own person. Not care what others think, including her dad, and to stand up for what she believes in. For Miguel, he went through his own growth where he learned to be strong without being an asshole. He also needed to get over his insecurity/jealousy in matters involving Sam. This growth was necessary for their relationship to survive. Timing-wise, it also allowed Daniel and Johnny to understand each other better and be more forgiving of the past. Because let's face it, the only thing that truly stood in the way of Sam and Miguel was Johnny and Daniel's rivalry.
  • The biggest thing that got in the way of Sam and Miguel's relationship was Johnny, more than anything. Johnny badmouthed the LaRussos to Miguel and claimed Daniel "stole his girl". This is just Johnny being very petty: Daniel "steals his girl" (he didn't) 34 years ago —> Daniel's 16 year old daughter in the present can't be trusted. It's likely things would play out like this had Sam gotten her dad and Miguel to interact:
    1. Johnny plants seed of doubt in Miguel's head about Sam's integrity.
    2. Sam introduces Miguel to Daniel. They hit it off, so Miguel forgets about Johnny's warning, but the seeds are still there.
    3. Amanda finds out about the car accident and grounds Sam, confiscating her phone.
    4. Miguel tries contacting Sam but she seems to be ghosting him. He's upset and he gets drunk.
    5. Drunk Miguel sees Sam holding hands with Robby at the beach and Johnny's words come back to him. Sam was ghosting him and shows up with another guy to the party? Sensei was right about her. Drunk Miguel's judgment is clouded and he attacks Robby because that's what a Cobra Kai alpha guy does when some guy is trying to put the moves on his girl. Maybe he's not as aggressive as in the actual scene because the whole "Sam has been trying to keep me a secret" emotional factor isn't there, but he still has a strong (due to the alcohol) negative reaction to seeing Sam and Robby.
    6. Whether or not Miguel tries to hit Robby, or is just hostile/combative and possessive in speech, Sam has a negative reaction to Miguel's actions because she's a smart girl who recognizes red flags in a guy when she sees them, especially after the deception she experienced from Kyler. Is the real Miguel the sweet guy she's been dating, or this aggro/alpha jealous guy she's seeing for the first time?
    7. It can argued that Miguel and Sam broke up at the tournament and not actually at the party. Sam does talk to Miguel at the tournament and he's angry at her and accusing her of going behind his back and introducing Robby to her parents and not him. But since Miguel's been introduced to Sam's family and he knows Sam isn't embarrassed of him, there is a chance that Miguel's talk with Sam goes much better when he is sober at the tournament. He's willing to listen to Sam, and listens when she explains to him that Robby was only her dad's employee/kind of her friend who broke her out of her house so she could go see Miguel. Sam also explains why she had her phone taken away. Miguel, having little reason not to trust her, listens to her and they're on a bumpy road to mending their relationship.

How Did Johnny Know Miguel Could Win the All Valley?

• So in 1x08, Miguel and Sam are talking on Facetime, trying to plan out a potential date when Miguel mentions that he can't make a certain day work because he is training all day. Sam asks if that is excessive and Miguel says that Johnny thinks he's got a real shot at winning the tournament. But how on earth though would Johnny even know that? The show implies that Johnny completely avoided karate and the All Valley Tournament until he rescued Miguel from Kyler's gang. He basically scowls at everything Daniel LaRusso so. Also, had Johnny ever gone to the tournament there is a high likelihood that he would have run into Daniel, who it's implied went each year to watch. So how is it that Johnny was able to make any statements about thinking Miguel could win without knowing anything about the other competitors? All he has is comparing Miguel to the other Cobra Kai kids. Miguel could be the best Cobra Kai kid but worse than the next worse competitor at the tournament for all he knows.
  • Fairly standard coach pep talk, plus while what you say is reasonable, Johnny doesn't think that way. He's probably going by what he saw the last time he saw under 18 karate, even if it was over 30 years ago, he still believes he knows all about it. Ironically in this case, perhaps, he's right.

Miguel's first encounter with Kyler

• It’s implied that Kyler and co. were trying to buy beer at the convenience store, the clerk believing that they were college students until Miguel blows their cover. But how did Miguel do that? He's literally just moved to this part of town, and school hasn’t started yet (later in the same episode, Miguel specifically expresses concern about having to run into them again “when school starts”), so it’s not like he would’ve recognized them from school. Did they have fake IDs that he recognized as fake? If so, then why does he have the skill to pick out fake IDs and why would he snitch on them anyway?
  • Miguel could've said something innocent like "Hey, you guys go to West Valley High School?" to get tips about the place and try to make friends. Which would lead to the clerk asking more questions or taking a closer look at their fake IDs, and then things would've gone downhill from there.
  • He might have also met one of the other kids around the neighborhood and brought up that they weren't 18 yet.

What if Miguel had come over to the LaRussos?

• So Sam was planning to come clean with her dad about Miguel when she came home in 1x09, only Daniel was out with Johnny, and she was confronted by her mom about the hit and run and grounded. But what would've happened if her dad was home and she came clean about Miguel? Does Sam tell him right away about Miguel being in Cobra Kai or does Daniel invite Miguel over for dinner, and it's during dinner that he learns Miguel is in Cobra Kai? Obviously Daniel wouldn't react well either way, but would Miguel try to explain the circumstances of how he came to know Johnny?
  • If Sam came clean to her dad, she would have to mention that Miguel is in Cobra Kai. Assuming that's what happens, then the biggest thing working against Sam (and Miguel) would the fact that at this point in time, Daniel just wasn't ready to accept Cobra Kai yet. There's really no way that Daniel doesn't blow up at Sam if he had found out about her and Miguel back then. However, one of the biggest things working for the teens would be Amanda. She disapproves of how Daniel was acting towards Cobra Kai and his attitude towards Sam dating. So, Amanda would probably think that Daniel was overreacting when he blows up at Sam.
    It would probably play out like this: Sam comes clean about dating Miguel, a member of Cobra Kai. She tries to explain that Miguel stood up for her to Kyler in front of everyone at school and how she thinks Cobra Kai has changed, but she doesn't get very far into her argument before Daniel blows up at her. This either leads to an argument between him and Sam that Amanda hears about afterward and scolds Daniel for, or Amanda intervenes while Daniel is freaking out and scolds him then. Inviting Miguel to dinner is Amanda's idea, and Sam agrees to it, but warily, because she's not sure how her dad is going to act. So Miguel comes over. Amanda tries to keep Daniel in check, but ultimately Sam is right to be worried about her dad not restraining himself when meeting Miguel because Daniel just can't see beyond his own personal experiences with Cobra Kai at that time and believes anyone involved with it to be inherently bad. Probably causes some issues with Miguel and Sam then, and the only way they're resolved is if Miguel fights cleanly in the tournament. If Miguel fights cleanly, whether he wins or loses, it proves that history is not repeating itself. Daniel might still want to be stubborn about it, but Amanda reminds him that it could cost him his relationship with Sam, and challenge him over whether or not his hard feelings towards Cobra Kai is worth that for him.
  • Daniel isn't going to get over Sam dating a Cobra Kai in a single day. At worst, he'd forbid Sam from seeing Miguel - which would lead to a big fight between the two with Sam going back to icing him out. At best, he'd tell her to give him some time to get used to it. Either way, Miguel is not getting an invite to the LaRusso house for at least a couple of days.

What if Miguel heard Sam out at the beach party?

• So when Sam shows up at the beach party with Robby, she tries to explain why she hasn't been able to contact him, but Miguel isn't listening and tries to attack Robby. What would've happened had Miguel calmed down and heard Sam out rather than try to fight Robby?
  • Miguel is still heavily drunk and is already insecure about his relationship with Sam (because of seeing Robby at dinner with her family and suspecting Sam is afraid to tell Daniel about them). But let's assume Miguel wasn't drunk, and heard her side of things. It appears Sam was ready to tell Miguel about Daniel and his bias against Cobra Kai at the party. If Miguel was calm and listened to her, then maybe he would see that she's on their side (or at least, the side of wanting to figure out how to best navigate a tricky situation together while protecting their relationship). Still, Johnny and Daniel's rivalry would have made it too hard for the young couple. It's definitely not fair to Miguel and Sam that they had to deal with that burden, but ultimately, the timing wasn't right for them in Season 1.
  • Sam clarifying that Robby had dinner at her house because he was Daniel's student, and that she could not introduce Miguel to her dad because of the rejection he feels for Cobra Kai, would've gone a long way. Maybe even Miguel himself would mention to Sam what Johnny had told him about her dad. Although there is also a chance that he wouldn't believe her. If anything's frustrating about Miguel, it's the fact that he believed Johnny when he spoke ill of the LaRussos. He tore his head off, only to see Robby having dinner at Sam's house. Whereas Sam did not believe what Daniel said about Cobra Kai until she saw Miguel act aggressively on the beach.
  • If Miguel let Sam explain herself, it would be a temporary fix at best. If Sam explains why she hadn't been able to contact Miguel, who Robby is to her, and Miguel believes her, then this diffuses some of the immediate tension between Miguel and Robby and also diffuses some of the tension between Miguel and Sam. They probably wouldn't break up at the party. However, the thing is that Sam showing up at the party with Robby after being out of contact from Miguel all day was just the final straw for him. Miguel was spiraling before the party. It started with Johnny's biased version of the events of 1984, and continued with Miguel realizing that Sam was being evasive about arranging for him to meet her parents, her never inviting him over to her house, and then he showed up at her house himself only to find her there with Robby. He tells his friends about what he saw, and Hawk kind of makes it worse. The most that this change would do is delay a conversation between Miguel and Sam that really should've happened sooner rather than later.
  • If Miguel was in a state of mind to listen to Sam, events would have played out in a similar fashion, but he probably wouldn't tried to hit Robby. Miguel is insecure. He was anxious about Sam not wanting to introduce him to her dad. And the more that Sam postponed her conversation with Daniel, that put Miguel more on edge. In turn, Sam didn't really reassure Miguel, which is why he went to her house and unknowingly saw Robby and assumed that he and Sam were together. Honestly, Sam and Miguel should have communicated better and Miguel needed to trust Sam more. Part of the problem is that they jumped into the relationship too soon. If they were better friends, then maybe so much miscommunication wouldn't have occurred.
    As for the party, even without drinking, Miguel would be pretty upset seeing Sam and Robby holding hands. It could have gone two ways. A) Sam and Miguel have a big fight and maybe as a result, clear up all the misunderstandings. Or B) Sam and Miguel have a big fight and break up because Miguel doesn't trust Sam, but an actual fistfight doesn't occur. In this timeline, Miguel would try to beat Robby to win Sam back, but maybe he wouldn't go for the shoulder.
    Now even if Sam and Miguel had a fight and later made up, it wouldn't end their problems. If Sam told Daniel about Miguel, it would make Sam's home life very difficult. Daniel hates Cobra Kai and would not like Miguel as a result. Daniel would actively try to get Sam to break up with him. It would be very stressful for Sam if she is caught in between Daniel—who is biased against anyone associated with Cobra Kai—and Miguel, who possibly does meet Daniel and tries to plead his case to Daniel, but gets shut down due to his connection to Johnny. Until Daniel gets over his prejudice of Cobra Kai, even if Miguel and Sam make up, their relationship is going to be put on hold.
  • Let's look at the circumstances. As Demetri had mentioned, it's not like Sam had done anything to make Miguel not trust her. Could she have told him how her dad didn't like Cobra Kai? Yes. But this is a TV show, so miscommunication is necessary or there would be no story. Sam is going to bring a new boy to her current boyfriend's party. She's going to go down a relatively steep hill and then immediately release hands when getting to the bottom of the hill. Then she introduces Miguel as her boyfriend to Robby and explains how he works for her dad, which at the time is true. Sam and Robby had met all of like once and talked for however long the car ride was. Then she explains how her mom grounded her, took her phone, and all of that and Aisha said something else to that effect and told Miguel not to worry either. Now okay sure, Miguel has every right to be suspicious. The circumstances definitely are very sketchy. The problem stems in how Miguel deals with the situation. Instead of talking it out like a normal person and listening to her and asking questions, he immediately doubts her, doesn't believe her when she explains her mom grounded her, and engages in a fight against Robby. A normal person would ask questions and talk it out with their girlfriend. Miguel could have asked "is there a reason you're hiding me from your parents?" and possibly even mentioned that he came over to introduce himself and explained how he saw Robby and that's why he got defensive. That's a conversation that Miguel should have had instead of starting a fight.
  • What happened at the beach party was an unfortunate series of misunderstandings and lack of communication. Sam should have been honest and not tried to hide her relationship with Miguel. This caused him to feel insecure and paranoid. He saw her with Robby at dinner, unbeknownst to Sam, and drew his own conclusions thanks to Johnny's biased version of events from 1984. Miguel should have listened to Sam when she tried to explain that her phone was taken from her. Sam went straight to see Miguel at the party. If she was trying to hide anything, she wouldn't have done that. Robby was into Sam already and more than happy to step in (not that Robby did anything wrong at this point. He didn't even know Sam had a boyfriend until he was able to get her out of the house). An unfortunate series of misunderstandings, but obviously written into the plot to further the storyline.
  • Robby should have backed off before though and let Sam and Miguel talk it out without him butting in. At this point in time, Robby barely even knew Sam, so wasn't really his place to get in the middle of their argument. He should have stayed nearby and just not said anything. And after Miguel pushed Robby, he shouldn't have escalated the situation by challenging Miguel to try it again. Robby did the right thing later by walking away to look after Sam instead of continuing his fight with Miguel. To Miguel's credit, he quickly realized what he had done and stopped himself after he hit Sam. But the whole incident is on Miguel and him being drunk and feeling insecure and jealous.
  • It's important to note that Miguel's asshole personality was something exaggerated by the alcohol, not created by it. We know he acts defensive and tries to throw the blame on Sam based on his talk to her at the tournament, and at the roller rink in season 2 episode 8. Even months later he was trying to justify his actions. Miguel’s arc at the end of season 1 and into season 2 was about learning to balance being a badass and being a good person. Which means he might have still fought dirty at the tournament because he valued winning over everything. In Season 2, there would have been struggles if Sam and Miguel were still dating, because Miguel would still be supporting Cobra Kai who would still be doing questionable things against Miyagi-Do. The likelihood is Sam and Miguel wouldn't have been able to date in Season 2, and at best would've had a strained friendship like Sam and Aisha did. Miguel had to learn how to walk away from Cobra Kai because it was poisoned. As long as he was in the bad version of Cobra Kai he wasn’t a person that Sam could/would date.

What if Daniel had found Miguel after the bathroom beating?

• So in the Halloween dance, Miguel gets cornered by Kyler's crew in the bathroom. Johnny doesn't find out until it's too late because he's passing out flyers, and Daniel is chaperoning. However, what would happen if Daniel saved Miguel here? Either, he walked in on them during the fight or he found Miguel after the fact?
  • If Daniel happened to walk in on Kyler's crew beating up Miguel, well, he's a respected member of the community, so someone Kyler knows personally and hence would know that Daniel could get him in trouble at school or at home. He would probably yell at Kyler and his friends to knock it off. They would stop and try to play it off as harmless roughhousing between friends. Daniel wouldn't believe it, and would beat them unconscious when he sees how badly injured Miguel is.
  • Daniel would've probably chosen to take Miguel home to get medical attention, and pulled Sam out of the party in doing so, meaning that Sam breaks up with Kyler then instead of after the movies. Which means Kyler possibly doesn’t start the vicious rumors he spread about Sam after she fought off his attempt to grope her.
  • If Daniel found Miguel, Sam would immediately break up with Kyler having found out he beat up a defenseless kid and go out with Miguel. Daniel might offer to help train Miguel in karate, but since Miguel is already pretty loyal to Johnny and determined to learn karate on his own, he'd stick with Cobra Kai. This might end up being a one-off incident - Daniel gets Miguel some medical help, Miguel thanks him for the rescue, Daniel tells him to think nothing of it and to take care of himself and they go their separate ways. It might soften their opinions of each-other, but at the same time, he didn't know Miguel was Cobra Kai (yes, he saw Miguel at Johnny's dojo, but it seems like Daniel forgot about that. And Miguel was wearing facepaint at the Halloween dance). So Miguel might assume that Daniel only did it because he didn't know and that it wouldn't change how he feels about him. The same might go for Sam- despite knowing that Daniel rescued Miguel, she might think that Miguel training with Cobra Kai would still be a deal-breaker because of her dad's grudge against Johnny.

Did Daniel ever find out what was "off" with Kyler?

• Daniel claims that something was off only when Kyler was trying to give Sam a ring (which was him trying to get into her pants). Did Sam ever tell Daniel about the cyberbullying courtesy of Kyler? Does Sam know about all the other times Kyler bullied Miguel, Eli and Demetri?
  • That would involve Sam telling Daniel that Kyler tried to date rape her and the rumors he spread about her afterwards. And judging from what Sam has felt comfortable/not comfortable about telling Daniel in the past, he probably doesn't know. Amanda might, though.
  • Well come Season 4 Daniel has seen Kyler fully loyal to Kreese and Silver's Cobra Kai, which means Daniel now has full confirmation of how bad he is.

The dogs not chasing after Johnny in the junkyard

• During the junkyard training sequence in Episode 8 of Season 1, the junkyard dogs chased after the students due to the scent created by the jerkies Johnny gave them, but Johnny was holding and eating jerkies himself, so why didn't the dogs chase after him too?
  • Because he wasn't running, and the kids were. He was standing still and they were more interested in the kids, who were moving targets. He also had the dog whistle, which is super annoying for a dog, so they weren't going to go anywhere near him.

What would've happened if Daniel hadn't caught Sam going into that empty classroom with Kyler at the Halloween dance?

• Daniel confronts Johnny in the hallway over him putting Cobra Kai flyers on the walls of the school hallway. While confronting Johnny, Daniel notices Sam going with Kyler to an empty classroom. Kyler plans on giving Sam a "bracelet", and he has Sam loosen up his belt, but Daniel comes in to "ruin everything", as Kyler puts it. What would've happened if Daniel had not noticed the teens in the hallway?
  • Kyler likely would've tried to rape Sam had Daniel not spotted them. When Kyler goes to the bathroom with his buddies right after this, Brucks says, “You had her in the palms of your dick!” and they talk about how the "bracelet trick" worked on some "slut" from another school, which just screams red flags. It's important to note that Kyler was only interested in Sam with the intent of getting into her pants...even if she didn't consent. Sam clearly wasn't ready for sex at this point in the relationship, judging by how grossed out she was in the previous episode when Daniel asked her if she was exchanging inappropriate pictures with Kyler (although in fairness, even if she was, that would still be an uncomfortable conversation to be having with her father so I doubt she'd react any differently). And we see in the next episode that Sam is not interested at all in Kyler's advances (which is after she sees him bullying Miguel's friends): she pulls away when he tries to kiss her ear, glares at him when he puts his arm on her shoulder and puts his hand on her leg, then obviously it gets worse when he moves his hand.
  • Likely, Kyler tries to get all handsy with Sam, and Sam says no. Should he get a bit forceful she’ll just defend herself, and gets out of there. Kyler begins his slutshaming of Sam an episode earlier than he actually did. Kyler and his gang would still mess with Miguel again at some point. Also, Kyler could easily deny guilt and accuse Sam of being a liar, and the school could end up being divided over one half that believes Sam and the other half which believes Kyler, with Brucks and his friends bullying Sam as revenge for her allegations against Kyler. Yasmine is probably torn between being on Kyler's side or Sam's side (we saw how uncomfortable she was watching Kyler bully Demetri in season 3, though this was admittedly post-wedgie), and Moon sides with Sam.

Johnny and Cobra Kai's Philosophy ( & Robby )

• Would Johnny have ever realized where Cobra Kai's philosophy (specifically the "no mercy" bit) is flawed if it wasn't his own son that was on the receiving end of the lessons he had drilled into his students? He had no problem with telling Miguel to kick Xander Stone, who is just some random kid he's never met, in the face. Compare that with how he reacts to Hawk and Miguel vs. Robby where he clearly becomes conflicted. It really makes one wonder Johnny would have had a problem with how his students acted if Robby hadn't participated.
  • It depends on whether Hawk and/or Miguel would use the same dirty tactics on another combatant. Even in the original film, Johnny did not approve of fighting dirty so he probably would have had the same reaction if they did.

Sam always missing Robby by that much

• So Robby's always known for having hilariously unlucky timing. But one moment really stands out, and that's "how did he never meet Sam until five months after Daniel started training him?" It’s never stated when exactly Robby starts training with Daniel, but one can safely conclude that it’s probably around December or January. Meaning Robby trained with Daniel for 4-5 months leading up to the tournament. That's 4 to 5 months of Robby visiting Daniel's house to train in his private dojo. Yet the first time Robby even meets Sam is the day he and Daniel go to the woods and he’s invited over for dinner that night, conveniently the same day that Miguel came over to introduce himself to Sam's family. So that's 5 months. How did Sam never once run into Robby at all during this time period? Five months and she was never around a single time when Robby stopped over for training? Five months and he never talked to Sam? Never got to get to know her or learn she had a boyfriend or anything? It’s not like Sam is antisocial (just temporarily friendless) since she was dating Miguel during this time period. Not to mention the dojo is out by the pool, where we see Sam laying outside multiple times since it’s Southern California and the weather is always nice.

How did Kreese know Johnny opened up a new Cobra Kai Dojo?

• Was he just lurking in the shadows for the last 30 years, staring at Johnny? Did he had a google alert? Was he driving past and saw the sign? He was awfully ready to come in and take over.
  • Kreese is an old-fashioned (homeless) man, he probably reads the newspaper whenever he can get one. A dojo closed for thirty years coming back and getting first place in a tournament probably made some headlines.

Season 2

Did Kreese want Stingray to leave Cobra Kai?

• In a deleted scene, Kreese talks to Stingray after the students scatter to begin the challenge at Coyote Creek. He says to Stingray, "We had a few men like you in 'Nam. They did two things well: Hiding... and getting killed. So why don't you go find a place to hide? Because both of us know how this is going to end, Chubbs". Since Coyote Creek was a last-man-standing kind of challenge, it did not make sense for Stingray to just hide to protect himself, since sooner or later he would have to fight someone, so was Kreese's actual message like "leave us for good before you seriously injure yourself"?
  • Stingray seems like the kind of person Kreese would've eventually cut of his own accord even if Stingray's actions in the school brawl hadn't forced him to.
  • Remember, Kreese is a horrible businessman. He doesn't care about building up lots of students, he only wants recruits who already have that "killer instinct."

Running a dojo and dealership simultaneously

• How the heck is Danny going to find the energy to run a Dojo and a car dealership at the same time? Does he have the same hours as Mr. Miyagi?
  • It's why companies have managers, lots of people own several different types of businesses they just hire someone they feel they can trust to run the day to day operations and do the accounting. According to Daniels billboard he actually owns MULTIPLE car dealership lots and seems to only work out of the one closest to home. He probably has other people running his other lots. Also as the owner... he can set his own hours. Some companies go a very long time without ever actually seeing their boss walk in.
  • It's also no secret that karate and bonsai trees are a big gimmick and theme with Daniel's company, so him investing in a small karate school would almost be considered the next logical step in his business.
  • Two evenings a week plus Saturday aren't that demanding, plus getting up an hour early to work out.
  • He got rid of cousin Louie. That alone should free up enough time for him to run a dojo.
  • As the Mob War showed ever so clearly, that's no longer the case. The boss can't ignore his business forever.
  • We see towards the end of Season 2 that he can't. He spends too much time focusing on the dojo, to the extent that one of his senior employees feels neglected and is poached by Cole's dealership. Amanda also confronts Daniel about the fact that he's ignoring her as well as the business.
  • In Season 3, he rehires his cousin Louie and has gotten the better side of Anoush, thus rehiring him. Both, alongside a happier Amanda, can take over.

No karate lessons for adults?

• Karate may have a stronger appeal with the youth demographic, but Stingray shows that there are adults who are interested in learning martial arts. Why has Johnny, Kreese, or even Daniel not offered to adult karate lessons?
  • Given the types that appeal to him, Kreese has no use for anyone that can see him for who he really is. And it's highly unlikely he sees any adult student that way. And the overall brand wasn't called The Karate Kid for nothing.
  • Kreese focuses on youth because they're easier for him to indoctrinate and most adults (Daniel, Johnny's old Cobra Kai gang, and the occasional smart teenager like Miguel) can see what a psychopath he is. Daniel did offer to teach some of his auto dealership workers, but he's primarily focused on teaching teenagers because he knows they're the ones who are most susceptible to falling in with Cobra Kai and wants to stop it. As for Johnny, he probably just didn't think of it.
  • Johnny offered to help the health inspector "lose that gut" when he first opened up. Afterwards he just didn't open up adult classes because the dojo was drawing in kids/teens until Stingray showed up.

Johnny taking care of Robby

• Daniel and Amanda know that Robby is Johnny's son — when Shannon leaves for Cabo, why is calling Johnny never even discussed? While we know the LaRusso home is more stable, Johnny is still Robby's father.
  • Uh it was, immediately actually. Amanda outright says that "he has a father". Since they obviously don't have each other's number, Daniel went to ask Johnny directly... only to find him with Kreese at which point he decides against telling him about Robby because he thinks Robby should not be around someone like Kreese, and Johnny by association. And he has good reason for thinking that: Daniel knows Kreese is dangerous to kids. He saw Kreese strangle Johnny, and attack Johnny’s friends when they tried to intervene. He knows Kreese was Terry Silver’s accomplice, and therefore responsible for Daniel, as a minor, being harassed and attacked by Mike Barnes, and manipulated and coerced by Silver. At that point, Daniel’s instinct changed to "keep Robby away from Kreese". And for good reason: because around this same time, Kreese tells Johnny that he, not Daniel, should be the one teaching Robby, and since Kreese at that time is also a Cobra Kai teacher, he is implying that they should be the ones teaching Robby, meaning that Kreese wanted Robby under his influence in order to control Johnny.

Reasons for attacking Robby in the final fight of season 2

• Okay Miguel, you know there's a psychopathic bitch trying to kill Sam, so why attack Robby when he tries to stop her? Miguel definitely has a beef with Robby but he'd shown restraint around him in more recent scenes (returning the medal, at Moon's party). He also kissed Robby's girlfriend the night before and has shown to feel guilt over that. There's no reason at that moment for Miguel to rage on Robby like that. Nor is there sign of strong affection from Miguel for Tory enough for him to rage that way to protect her, especially when he was rushing to protect Sam from Tory in the first place.
  • From Miguel's angle, it looked like Robby was attacking her rather than just restraining her to keep Sam safe so he jumped in to stop him.
    • Everyone at school heard Tory’s announcement that she was about to hand Sam a public ass beating because she and Miguel kissed. If it didn’t occur to Miguel at that point that Tory was the attacker, then Miguel is grasping the Idiot Ball. Tory is the lone attacker in all of this. Robby also saw Sam get hurt but didn’t attack Tory, only restrained her. If Miguel thought Robby was attacking Tory (something he has very little cause to believe, while having a lot of cause to believe Robby was just protecting Sam), he could have tried to restrain Robby as opposed to charge at him and start a whole other fight when he knew Tory was on the attack.
  • More than that, Miguel didn't get there in time to hear exactly what Tory's motivations were for the confrontation, as Robby did. The very first thing Miguel saw was Robby putting Tory against the lockers. He thought Robby was fighting Tory when he was just trying to break up the fight.
  • It also didn't help that Robby and Miguel's rivalry was still heated over the events that happened (not just each one's feelings for Sam, but also Robby's resentment towards Miguel over what happened in the tournament as well as Johnny showing favoritism towards him).
  • Miguel's emotions are also confused as to who to side with. He has a good idea what Tory is attacking Sam over: the kiss Sam had with him at the party. A kiss that was arguably more his fault than Samantha's. You have to remember that it was Miguel who approached Sam; she was sitting by the pool alone, trying to collect her thoughts because she just found out Miguel had returned Miyagi's Medal of Honor and that it was Robby who didn't tell her. Moreover, Sam was drunk, while Miguel had a sober head and knew that what he was doing was wrong. You can clearly see Miguel looking at her lips and her eyes, which in show and movie world is how writers convey characters signaling that they're thinking about kissing someone. If you look really closely, while Sam moves her head in initially, she stops to make sure Miguel is okay with what is happening. She's only partially aware of what's going on, but she still stops for a split second to make sure Miguel consents to what was about to happen. After she sees Miguel's breath hitch, they lean in together the rest of the way. Put that another way: Miguel had absolutely no problem at all with cheating on Tory, and he definitely wanted to kiss Sam in the moment. So siding with Sam would make him a target for Tory too.
  • Watch carefully. Miguel only intervenes when Robby kicks Rickenberger (another Cobra Kai). When he first arrives, he does see Robby trying to restrain Tory, but doesn't do anything himself until Robby throws the first kick. Deep down, Miguel is probably glad that he's not the one holding Tory away from Samantha, because if he were, he'd be making clear to Tory just who his feelings are for, and would've turned her rage onto him as well. That explanation would nicely tie with the voicemail he left Johnny that morning where he said he was having girl trouble. Later in the fight, Miguel was trying to leave Robby and go break up Tory and Sam but Robby chased him up the stairs to keep fighting him.
  • Regarding the mindsets of the four people in this particular love dodecahedron when the fight starts:
    • Miguel intended to jump into the fight if necessary in order to protect Sam and stop Tory, but when he actually got there, it didn't look like Robby was trying to stop the fight. From what Miguel sees it looks like Robby is fighting the Cobra Kai kids. Sam might fuel some of the rage which he then channels into the fight, but the underlying reason why he's fighting is unresolved business with Robby.
    • For Robby, Johnny might've fueled some of his anger but it was Miguel's "[Sam] loves me, not you" comment that tipped him over the edge into pure rage, meaning Sam was his main underlying reason for fighting.
    • Miguel was just the excuse for Tory. It was always first and foremost about her problems with Sam. Witnessing Sam and Miguel's kiss just so happened to be the last straw for her. If Tory hadn't seen it or it hadn't happened at all then it would've just been the next perceived slight by Sam that Tory would've started a fight over instead.
    • Sam is mostly just fighting in self-defense, but if there's an underlying reason, it'd also be Tory. Their rivalry had been brewing all summer and it seems like during the fight Sam decides that she's well and truly sick of Tory and wants to settle their rivalry once and for all.
  • This whole scene made no sense at all. Robby and Miguel sharing the same goal as peacemaker, yet Miguel charges at Robby for supposedly hurting Tory, who Miguel was trying to save Sam from. That makes no sense coming from Miguel, who is usually level headed. He had to know that Robby was trying to protect Sam, which was Miguel's goal also. Miguel should also have known from hearing Tory's announcement the she was crazed and needed to be contained. How is containing a crazed Tory supposed to look? What Robby was doing appeared as non-threatening as could be expected. This one's on Miguel. Or maybe just poor choreography of this particular scene or poor writing as this seemed very out of character for Miguel. As the scene continues up the stairs, the roles switch and it now appears that Miguel is more concerned with stopping Tory, while Robby seems more intent on fighting Miguel. In character for Miguel, but very out of character for Robby.
  • When you look closely, the motives appear to be shifting throughout the fight with regards to the boys.
    • Miguel started that fight probably with the intention of protecting Sam. Tory had threatened to hurt Sam, and he wanted to make sure that didn't happen. Then he got there, and saw Robby holding back Tory and kicking Rickenberger, and then it seemed to turn into some kind of "trying to defend Cobra Kai because they're kind of a cult". So then it wasn't about Sam, it was about Robby attacking Cobra Kai. Then Tory kicked him^note admittedly because by that point, she was out of control, unlike when Robby was subduing her, where she was still capable of making judgment calls and it wasn't really about Tory anymore. It shifted back to just being mad at Robby and trying to protect Sam. Miguel's motives shifted a lot in that fight.
    • As for Robby, what Robby was mad about was that he thought Miguel had taken advantage of Sam. And he has reason to suspect this: his mother was always coming home from bars with different guys, so Robby probably saw his share of guys who took advantage of Shannon when she was drunk. So maybe Robby really thought the situation was Miguel took advantage of a drunk Sam. That's one of the first things he asks in their fight.
    • With the girls, Tory was just looking for a reason to fight. It was always about antagonizing Sam any chance she got. And Sam was just fighting in self-defense.
  • In all honesty, it kinda feels like the writers started writing this part of the show with the outcome of the fight decided and then worked backwards from that. This is to say they knew that their endgame was for there to be a huge fight that ends with Robby gravely injuring Miguel, and after deciding that, they worked on mapping out how that would actually occur story-wise. It's just a WMG, but it's the most plausible explanation for why some of the circumstances surrounding the fight are so vague. What the audience is supposed to understand is that Miguel misconstrues what he sees when he arrives in the hallway. From his perspective, it doesn't look like Robby is trying to protect Sam. It looks like he's fighting Cobra Kai. But, the thing is that's just a guess and even if it's correct, it's presented very unclearly in the show. There's more of a reason for Robby to be fighting Miguel (he believes that the kiss happened because Miguel took advantage of Sam) than for why Miguel is fighting Robby. Taking this information into account, along with who between the two of them is known to have a more fiery temper, if Robby was the one who had picked the fight with Miguel, no one would be questioning why he did it.
  • This headscratcher wouldn't exist if Miguel had a reason for tackling Robby that he would consider to be a good one. He had fought to defend others before the school brawl, so him doing that again in this scene would've been fine if it was clear why he thought that someone was being threatened. This could've been done in two ways:
    • Option 1: Cut Robby's line where he's suggesting that the girls can talk it out. That way, Miguel arrives to Robby pinning one of his Cobra Kai peers to a locker and kicking another one without any context. Yes, he should probably still be able to deduce that Robby had a good reason for pinning Tory because she just threatened Sam, but then again it's also plausible for Miguel to stumble across this scene and assume that Robby is "striking first" to avoid Tory / Cobra Kai getting the drop on Sam / Miyagi-Do.
    • Option 2: Make it clear that Miguel saw Robby kicking his Cobra Kai peer while pinning Tory to the lockers. That would make it more believable that Miguel believed Robby to be picking a fight with Cobra Kai rather than just protecting Sam from Tory.
  • Some of it may have been due to built up tension between Miguel and Robby, because of their conflicts over Johnny and Sam. Miguel's taunts about Johnny teaching him the headbutt move ("Like that move? I learned it from your dad!") and Sam loving him and not Robby, and the vicious way Robby is fighting implies that they had been itching for a rematch as those feelings that both boys tried to suppress (Robby's resentment of Miguel over Johnny and insecurity over Sam's feelings for Miguel, and Miguel's resentment of Robby for "stealing" Sam from him) surfaced and boiled over, even if they also had the goal of stopping the fight between Tory and Sam. (Yes, both boys may have seemed mellow in their prior interactions in season 2, but that's likely because their rivalry needed to take a backseat to the girls' rivalry which was what was being showcased and developed in those scenes.)
  • Here's another possible explanation:
    1. By the time that Miguel and Robby are both running through the school hallways, they have the exact same goal: "Protect Sam." Both of them seem to plan on going about this by stopping Tory. There's some confusion over how Hawk got to the fight long before Miguel when they were in the same classroom, and the likely reason for this is that Miguel ran straight to the office after class got out and actually tried to cut off Tory before she even got to Sam.
    2. So Robby winds up getting to the fight before Miguel. By the time that Robby decides to intervene, Miguel still hasn't arrived. Robby still seems committed to his goal of protecting Sam, and he makes a snap judgment call that the best way to do this is to restrain Tory. There has been some debate over whether or not he does this in a violent/aggressive manner by basically whipping her against the lockers and then kicking away the Cobra Kai student who appears to try and intervene.
    3. It's while Robby is holding Tory against the lockers and kicking away a Cobra Kai student that Miguel arrives. Based on what he walks into, he immediately assumes that Robby is fighting Cobra Kais. Yes, as he arrives Robby is also very loudly announcing that they could figure out this conflict without violence, but from Miguel's perspective, Robby is only suggesting nonviolence after he's kicked away the Cobra Kai. Now, Miguel cares about both Sam and Tory. He doesn't want either of them to get hurt. He wants to stop the fight between Sam and Tory, and even if he assumes that Robby wants the same, he now believes that Robby is willing to stop the fight at the expense of hurting Tory or at the very least, not caring if Tory happens to be hurt in the process. In the chaos, Miguel now makes his own snap judgment call and decides he's not okay with that. ^note Admittedly, that's not the best judgment call. Tory's actions are criminal and crazy. If she gets hurt in the process of others intervening to stop her attack, then so be it. You don’t put the safety of the attacker ahead of protecting the victim. So, Miguel tackles Robby. Though this in the process frees Tory to resume attacking Sam.
    4. Miguel is now essentially fighting Robby to protect Tory while still trying to protect Sam from Tory. He does eventually get to the girls' fight once it's moved up to the second floor landing, but Tory very quickly kicks him away (because by that point she's out of control and given into her rage, and would've done the same to any other student who intervened). He fails to stop the fight, and as Robby is running up the stairs to presumably take his turn at trying to stop it, Miguel makes his second snap judgment call wherein he decides again that he's not willing to let Robby stop the fight. So he trips Robby.
    5. At the end of the day, applying reason and logic to two karate trained teenage boys who fucking hate each other and happened to meet in the middle of a fight is going to answer many questions.
    • On a re-watch, from Miguel's perspective, both Hawk and the other guy are standing in his way. He can't see that Robby is restraining Tory. He sees Robby kick the other student while holding Tory by the neck and very much in a position to injure her. That's why his rage snaps and Miguel tackles Robby. For some time after that, they're just fueled by their rivalry and hatred of each other.
    • We don't know what Miguel saw, because we got no POV shots from him. And even if he did see/assume Robby was fighting Cobra Kai and Tory, Miguel has zero excuse for continuing to attack him even as Robby said they could work things out. I love Miguel, but he was 100% in the wrong, bears much of the blame for how bad the fight got, including his own injuries to an extent, and Robby kicking him off the balcony is the only reason both sides continue to have a point.

Miguel's injuries at the end of season 2

• This may seem like an odd question, but what exactly happened to Miguel's body when he took that fall? What are his chances of surviving?
  • He landed hard on his back after a two-story landing. Enough to seriously damage any body part that had come into contact with the stairway. The back of his head, especially, took a massive hit. His chances of survival are hard to gauge early on; whether he'll be able to continue doing martial arts is another matter.
    • His spine took a direct hit when he landed on the railing, then he bounced and hit the stairs, cracking his neck. The shot of the x-ray is too brief to tell the damage, but spinal injuries are serious. Depending on the break and what damage is done to the spinal cord, he could be paralyzed from the neck down (a la Christopher Reeve) for life. This is television, though, so being young and strong, he could have landed in *just* the right way that he narrowly missed hitting any nerves, and with intensive physiotherapy he could walk again, but his martial arts career is probably over for a long time. Perhaps that will be his Story Arc for season 3, and the season will end with him standing up and punching the training dummy.
    • Pretty close actually. The troper above is correct that his Story Arc for Season 3 was regaining the ability to walk, but he was able to do that halfway through the season. It took him longer to regain the ability to properly perform martial arts (his punches were fine but his kicks and footwork were still neutered significantly). But by the Season Finale he seems to have regained a majority of his ability in that field as evidenced by him defeating Kyler once again with a bevy of kicks and flips.

Rationale behind Moon's actions

• Moon is one great big headscratcher altogether. Did the lessons at the canyon party — with all the booze the Cobra Kai had brought in just to upstage Yasmine — just whizz right through her skull? You take the students of both dojos, bring them together under your roof, and bring in lots of beer, and you think they're going to just sit around, hold hands, and talk things out peacefully — in their state of mind? Honey, I know you're the kid of a hippie and all that, but just what are you smoking?
  • She's shown she's very much in her own little world of moonbeams and unicorns, and she genuinely seems to like everyone at the party and wants them all to put aside their differences and get along. Her heart's in the right place, but her methods are really NOT effective!
  • Moon probably thinks the only problem is the people she was hanging out with, because they were mean. Remove mean people, parties with lots of drinking are fine! In fact they're a good chance to have everyone be friends together! So yeah the analytical skills are not strong with this one.
    • Explains why she was referred to as the dumbest of the Moon / Kyler / Yasmine trio.
    • Not really dumb, just naïve. She wants to think the best of everyone and wants there to be a happy ending, and wants it so badly she ignores reality to a certain extent. Idealistic bordering on delusional, but not necessarily stupid.
    • Moon's not really involved in the Miyagi-do/Cobra Kai feud. Sure, she has friends in both dojos, but she generally hangs out with them separately. So she doesn't really know how deep the actual feud actually runs, and thinks that if she brings both sides together, they'll have fun and make up with one another. Like what happened between her and Aisha at the canyon party in Season 1. They partied together, had fun, and made up with one another.
  • To be fair, Moon's idea wasn't completely awful. How many people, when drunk, turn into "I love you man! No, I love you man!"? Answer: about the same number who turn into "I'm gonna kick your ass!" Put in the same place with plenty going on and some booze to lower defenses and inhibitions, it's not unthinkable that the different dojo students might start talking to each other, and in talking start to like (or at least respect) each other. The main crippling factor in Moon's plan is that some of these people have very deep-seated, personal animosities: Sam and Tory for how badly their first meeting went, Miguel and Robby for the Love Triangle, dirty pool in the tournament, and Johnny's favoritism for Miguel; Hawk and Demetri for We Used to Be Friends, and Moon is for the most part unaware of how bad this blood is and how deeply it runs. She was likely thinking more in terms of two rival sports teams. They may not be friends but can at least gel to the point of respectful and amicable rivals, not individuals with deep personal grudges festering into full-fledged hatred.
    • It's easy to imagine that the reason Sam and Miguel were able to get the dojo alliance off on solid footing in season 3 is because they factored in the above issues that Moon didn't get (and also made a point of not having any alcohol on hand when they got the Miyagi-Dos and Eagle Fangs together at the LaRusso house).
  • Moon is like that girl in Mean Girls who said that she wants everybody to be friends again and get along and be happy. The only difference is that she actually goes to their school.

The point of the wheel technique in Season 2

• What is the whole point of the wheel technique in Season 2? I mean I guess it's supposed to be an exercise in being in sync with your partner, but how is that actually practical, since you have to mirror your partner's moves, and make your moves more predictable?
  • Well, this is the franchise known for the Crane Kick, so one shouldn't expect the show to depict realistic martial art techniques. That said, the wheel technique teaches the Miyagi-Do students how to cooperate with one another and how to effectively fight off multiple opponents. In practice, Sam and Robby don't actually mirror each other's movements too often when utilizing the wheel technique in combat, which suggests that the synchronization aspect during training is supposed to teach them how to sense each other and cover each other's blind spots.
  • It's about moving continuously in a circle with a partner, maintaining awareness of where they are and what they're doing without losing focus on your own situation. Training in it by using kata is just an abstraction to give them a set of moves to follow while learning to synchronize with their partner.
  • It also helps to teach predicting and coordinating with an opponent or ally. You learn to feel how someone moves to know how to predict someone else's movements. You then use this instilled knowledge to know what to do, when to do it, and how you need to do it.

Tory's status at the school

• At the end of season 2, Amanda promises Sam that she will do whatever she needs to have Tory expelled from the school. However, shouldn't Tory have already been expelled by this point? Before the whole fight takes place, Tory attacked one member of the school's staff to announce her fight with Sam, so if trying to maim her guaranteed her expulsion, surely assaulting a member of the school's staff would've deserved it too, and we can assume that at the very least, Tory knocked out that teacher and/or left her bound and gagged.
  • Most schools in America, especially California, try their best to not expel or even suspend students unless they take things too far, as happens here. Tory gets expelled for her actions because she started the fight and injured Sam badly enough that she had to go to the hospital. The only reason that she ended up on probation as opposed to being sent to juvie is because she is the head caregiver for her ill mother. However they also turn around and gave Sam and everyone else who participated in the fight a two week suspension, which Amanda was infuriated about because Sam was simply fighting back in self-defense.
  • Tory, like Robby, was expelled because the school needed scapegoats for the whole fracas. They happen to also be the two who caused serious injury to their opponents in the brawl, Tory by slicing Sam's arm with a spiked bracelet and trying to do the same to her head, and Robby by kicking Miguel over the railing. When combined with her attacking the staff and hijacking the intercom, it's irrefutable that Tory was the instigator of the whole mess. The expulsion was also likely a necessity in Tory's case in an attempt to deter the LaRussos from suing the school alleging that the school was negligent and failed in its duty to protect their daughter from harm, especially considering the lack of response by the administrators when Tory threatened Sam over the PA system.^note In a competent school, the school day wouldn't be allowed to continue as normal after that. The school would've instantly halted everything going on and gone into full lockdown, which wouldn't have been unreasonable, as Tory's words could've been construed as a shooting threat. Even if there wasn't a lockdown, the teachers and security wouldn't have just gone on like "Oh well then! A student just threatened bodily harm on another student over the PA system, might as well ignore it!" That said, Amanda still wasn't satisfied, thinking Tory belonged in juvie.

How did Kreese take over the Dojo and get the landlord to sign off on him?

• Isn't he basically just a drifter with no money at this point or was Johnny sharing any of the proceeds from the Dojo with him? Even if Armand doesn't like Johnny, at least he knows he can pay, but Kreese is a complete unknown and therefore a risk. Also, even if he could get the lease through with the landlord, isn't Cobra Kai a "sole trader" registered under Johnny's name? Can't Johnny just call the police and say something about Kreese refusing to vacate his place of business?
  • When Johnny went on his road trip with his old Cobra Kai gang, he left Kreese in charge of the office. It is noted on his return that Kreese has done all the paperwork and Johnny just needs to sign stuff. Kreese probably took full advantage of Johnny's disinterest in the paperwork to slip in the necessary transfers of titles and leveraged whatever credit and finances were available through that to arrange for the necessary monies. It is also not just that Kreese has got the property, he has the hearts and minds of the students too. Even if Johnny could evict Kreese, the kids made it clear they were with him and not Johnny now, he has no students.
  • Johnny may have kicked Kreese out and told his whole class that Kreese didn't have their best interests, and that he wanted to teach them the difference between "No Mercy" and "No Honor", something Kreese never taught him. The students like Hawk and Tory who still decided to listen to Kreese and eventually sided with him (and abandon Johnny) after Miguel's accident, they were ones who naturally gravitated towards him anyways. It's also very likely that he was keeping in touch with them behind Johnny’s back. It was only a matter of time before he made his move.
  • Johnny leased the building through just a "handshake deal" with Armand, the landlord. Kreese didn't need to change any paperwork because there was no formal, written contract to begin with. This being the case, Johnny has no legal right to the property. A glaring oversight, but given Johnny's lack of business acumen, one he could have easily made. Kreese probably went to Armand, told him Johnny was ruining/ignoring the business, and that he would make a better client.
    • Slight correction: Johnny's verbal deal with Armand would definitely be legal and enforceable; verbal contracts are every bit as valid as written ones (that's how phone salesmen can sell you stuff over the phone). The problem with verbal contracts is how to enforce them; Johnny could definitely sue Armand for breaking his deal and making a new one with Kreese, but then he has to supply a court with "a preponderance of evidence" that shows that he had a deal with Armand, that said deal predates Kreese's, and that said deal included an agreement that the deal could not be unilaterally and immediately terminated. None of this is trivial, some of it is impossible, fighting a legal battle is not cheap, and Johnny, while not impoverished anymore, is still a small business owner with limited means.
  • Johnny wasn't in much mood to battle Kreese over this anyway after Miguel was put in the hospital. Johnny was already in "this was a mistake" mode and just let Kreese keep it.

What was the deal with Coyote Creek?

• Johnny says to Kreese "I don't think they're ready for Coyote Creek." But they were playing a fun game like Capture the Flag.
  • They weren't "playing a fun game like Capture the Flag". Kreese took the students out there for an all out war game where he encourages them to fight more viciously than Johnny ever taught them. Since Johnny wants Cobra Kai to be better than it was in the 80s and was horrified by his students actions at the All Valley, he was clearly uneasy about the idea of the kids doing this kind of training.

Are Miguel and Sam the only people that were hurt in the big fight?

• Robby kicked three people down a staircase. The two younger kids were probably going to have harder hits on one another if Cobra Kai methods were used. It could be multiple hospitalizations from that one fight alone. Miguel being the hardest hit casualty of that fight makes sense but are we sure Sam was the second most injured person?
  • Hawk got several cuts on his face from being kicked through the glass trophy case, but it wasn't enough to put him in the hospital since he's there at Cobra Kai when Johnny goes by that evening and finds the students siding with Kreese. He might've needed some stitches, but that's it. Aside from that, it's likely that many of the teens did suffer injuries and may have needed medical attention, but since Miguel and Sam are the main participants who are in bad shape and the closest connected to Johnny and Daniel, and their own relationship, the narrative focus was on them.
  • It is very difficult to measure on how much injury was inflicted. There wasn't enough screen time to display that.

Moon's anti-bullying stance

• How can Moon be so against Hawk's bullying when she spent the first season standing idly by while Kyler bullied Demetri, Miguel, and eventually Sam? And Moon also participated in Yasmine's bullying against Aisha? That's too big of a turn-around to explain.
  • Moon laughs at the video of Aisha at first, but once Aisha leaves the room, she kind of stops and watches her like she was thinking about it. She also seems unhappy in the cafeteria when Sam wasn't allowed at their table and Kyler bullied her. Maybe it was a process for her starting at Halloween.
  • Much like Sam, Moon seemed to have been another victim of peer pressure. Unlike Sam though, Moon was better and more willing to put up the persona of an Alpha Bitch.
  • Moon just happened to first-hand see how far things have gotten and regretted it when she saw Hawk's transformation from bullied kid to raging bully himself). The same can be said about Yasmine who went from bully to being more compassionate in Season 3.

Hawk Arriving at the School Brawl First

• Hawk and Miguel are shown to be in the same classroom in the period before the school brawl happened in the Season 2 finale, and Miguel is shown booking it towards where Tory and Sam were, so how did Hawk get there before Miguel did?
  • Tory never said where she was going to confront Sam so the two of them went in different directions trying to find them. It's likely that, given Miguel knows Tory found out about how he cheated on her with Sam, he went towards the announcer's office hoping he could intercept Tory before she could get anywhere near Sam.
  • Hawk has been at that school longer than Miguel, so he probably knew the fastest way there. At bigger schools like West Valley, it can be difficult to remember the layout of the building.
  • Maybe Miguel took a bathroom break. Would be the last one he ever took standing up.

Why does no one care about the mall fight?

• I know it's widely regarded as the worst fight in the show among fans, but I just think it's weird that in-universe it's just kind of...forgotten about. I know Robby brings it up when he objects to Chris and Nate joining Miyagi-Do, but what about over in Cobra Kai? Johnny is furious when he finds out about Miyagi-Do being trashed immediately after the mall fight (and this is also happening as Johnny is attempting to change Cobra Kai for the better and trying to prevent his students from acting like bullies ), so I find it hard to believe that Johnny has no reaction to the mall fight itself. And while it's possible Kreese kept the mall fight a secret from Johnny, what about the other Cobra Kai students? The mall fight was being filmed and the Miyagi-Do students are perfectly free to talk about it, so I doubt that those who weren't present at the fight would never hear about it happening.
  • Daniel knows about it, but it's not a Moral Event Horizon for him. He anticipates that bullies will be bullies which is his reason for opening Miyagi-Do in the first place. And he doesn't know the kids involved so it's really not a big deal for him. Johnny is not very internet-savvy so it's pretty easy to imagine he wouldn't know about it if it wasn't filmed.

• And while it's true that most of the Cobra Kai students could've known about it and just not cared or were okay with Hawk and the others going after Demetri, what about Miguel? Aren't he and Demetri still friends at this point? I know he's arguably closer to Hawk at this time, but still. Are we really supposed to believe that Miguel is just fine with Hawk taking a bunch of their classmates to go beat up someone he thinks of as a friend? Considering how he reacted to Miyagi-Do being trashed and the medal being stolen, I doubt that Miguel just wouldn't care about Hawk going after Demetri. He and Hawk are shown to be pretty close friends at this time, so even if Hawk didn't tell Miguel directly about the mall fight and/or Moon breaking up with him, and Miguel doesn't spend much time online, it's a bit of a stretch to believe that word about this very disruptive fight at a public place, a fight that solely involved people Miguel personally knows, never got back to him ever.
  • The mall fight is weird because it has the ramifications of Moon breaking up with Hawk, and Kreese subsequently talking Hawk into trashing Miyagi-Do. The mall fight and Miyagi-Do being trashed presumably happen very close together, possibly even on the same day. Johnny and Miguel are both upset when they find out about Miyagi-Do being trashed, so the only two options are 1) Johnny and Miguel never hear about the mall fight at all which seems unlikely or 2) Johnny and Miguel do hear about the mall fight, but neither of them are upset about it, which just seems out of character.

Kreese faked his death twice?

• Am I forgetting something or did the show just kind of gloss over the fact that Johnny was inexplicably quite certain that Kreese was dead in season 1 only to be totally wrong? Like, why did he think that? Did Kreese fake his death a second time? Was Johnny just assuming for some reason? And if this is the case, then why did he sound so sure about an assumption?
  • Despite not being involved in the plot of The Karate Kid Part III at all, Johnny might have heard in passing that Kreese had "died" from when Terry Silver was spreading that lie. After all, we don't really know how far it spread, or who else Silver might have told it to. Being as disconnected from the karate scene as he was, maybe Johnny wasn't paying attention to the All Valley tournament where Kreese was obviously present, so he just always assumed that Kreese was dead. Kreese being homeless also factors in, as when someone like him disappears off the grid and goes to working menial jobs to get by, it's easy to assume well they probably died. After all not a person in the Valley knows what happened to him.

What if Miguel approached Sam again at the roller rink?

• At the roller rink in season 2 episode 8, after Miguel and Sam have their failed talk at the skate counter, Sam seemingly says sorry randomly as she's tying her skates. She's saying this because she thought it was Miguel coming up to her again and she felt bad about how their conversation at the counter went, not realizing it was actually Robby. Keep in mind basically every step of the way in Season 2, Sam was still holding on to hope that Miguel was still good and they could at least be friends again. So when she realized she blew off her one chance of reconnecting with him she was upset and that's why she apologized when Robby came up to her: because she thought it was Miguel coming up to talk to her again. But what if it had been Miguel who had come up to her again?
  • The conversation between Sam and Robby is cut short when Tory trips Sam and then Sam retaliates. While Tory would be angry if she saw Miguel and Sam talking for a second time, she probably wouldn't lash out in the same way if Miguel was standing right there. It appears she was still trying to hide that part of herself from Miguel based on how she played victim when Sam retaliated. If she saw them talking the second time, she would either interrupt the conversation by planting a kiss on Miguel to mark her territory and make a snarky remark to Sam, or strike when Miguel isn't looking.
    • Tory tripped Sam in canon when Miguel wasn't looking, clearly trying to frame Sam. She knew that as soon as Miguel knew he had a chance to reconnect with Sam, her own relationship with him would be on borrowed time. It would not be in her best interests to trip Sam with Miguel standing right there, but wait for another opportunity to make Sam look bad (or equally as bad as Tory) in hopes that Miguel sees Tory as the "victim", instead of a situation where Miguel knows full well that Sam is the victim that Tory attacked.
  • It's ambiguous as to whether Tory thought Sam approached Miguel to talk to him at the counter or if she knew that it was Miguel that approached her. If she knew that it was Miguel and tripped Sam, then it's likely that she'd have done the same thing had Miguel approached Sam again. If she thought it was Sam though, and then saw Miguel approach her a second time, maybe she wouldn't act the same way as she would see that it was Miguel approaching her, not Sam trying to "steal" Miguel and talk to him. Regardless, their encounter at Moon's party would have likely been even more tense.
    • Tory would have more reason to believe that Miguel approached Sam than the other way around. From what Tory knew, Miguel was the one who wanted her back, not the other way around. So common sense should tell her it was Miguel who approached Sam. The thing is, Tory doesn't care. She tripped Sam as a way to tell her to stay away from Miguel because she knew that was the only way her relationship with Miguel stood a chance. That, and it was another reason for her to take her anger out on Sam. Same warped logic that explains why Tory attacked Sam when she saw them kiss. Forget that Miguel was a willing participant, she was gonna blame Sam no matter what.
    • At Moon's party, Tory watched Miguel kiss Sam just as much as Sam was kissing him...and still solely went after Sam. It's unclear how Tory would've reacted to seeing Miguel and Sam talk again since it's her who intervenes in the actual conversation between Sam and Robby in the show. But going by her reaction to witnessing their first conversation that evening, Tory most likely would've been angry to see them talking a second time. But, would she have still tripped Sam if Miguel was standing right there? Or would she have waited, leading to a tense atmosphere at Moon's party? If the latter, it's possible the big brawl between the dojos would end up happening at Moon's party instead of at the school. But if Tory never confronted Sam at the roller rink, then presumably Sam and Miguel would get to have an actual conversation, and really that could've easily led to both of them breaking up with Robby and Tory before the party.^note The timeline between episodes 8 and 9 is fuzzy. Sam is just telling Moon about what happened at the roller rink in episode 9, implying there wasn't too much time that had passed. So would they have broken up with Robby and Tory after only beginning to talk for a few days? Maybe they would. In Season 3 episode 8, Sam and Miguel go from talking once in the morning at school and establishing that they were friends again to being in an intimate relationship in what appears to be roughly a 72 hour period. So while the situation is slightly different they both don't seem to have a problem with moving quickly when they recognize their feelings for each other. If this happened at the roller rink in season 2, they might have tried to talk for a bit as friends before breaking up with Robby and Tory. But the exact time period before Sam breaks up with Robby, and Miguel breaks up with Tory, would be hard to guess.
  • If it really was Miguel who approached Sam instead of Robby, he would've accepted Sam's apology without hesitation and the two could talk in a friendly manner. Tory wouldn't appreciate her boyfriend talking with his ex that he was still pining over, so she probably would've attacked Sam (not as brutally as how she did during the school fight) or humiliated her later on while Miguel wasn't present, because she didn't want Miguel to see that side of her. As for when Sam and Miguel would respectively break up with Robby and Tory...
    • Sam's breakup with Robby would be on amicable terms. Their breakup would likely be almost immediately after that night. Since they had not even been dating for more than a week or so in the first place. She'd be honest with Robby and tell him that she couldn't be in a relationship with him when she was still holding feelings for Miguel and she didn't know where that would go now that they had begun to reconnect. She would have remained friends with Robby though, and Robby would have been hesitant (especially since there's still bad blood between him and Miguel) but accept it because he's not losing Sam as a friend and family so.
    • It probably would have taken a bit more time before Miguel would break up with Tory. Tory also hates Sam so she probably wouldn't have taken it well even if Miguel broke up with her for Sam without cheating on her. Tory was just looking for a reason to be gunning for Sam. The school fight would've taken place nonetheless (because even if the kiss never happened, Tory would've picked a fight with Sam over the next perceived slight she could think of as an excuse), except Robby wouldn't have been emotionally confused and hurt by Sam's actions, meaning he wouldn't fight Miguel.
  • If it was Miguel, the events of the last three episodes would play out like this;
    • In the ensuing conversation Miguel has with Sam, Miguel apologizes for his earlier behavior towards Sam at the beach party, the tournament, and their earlier talk at the skate counter. During this, he mentions that he came by the LaRusso house the other day to return the Medal of Honor, and was hoping she was there, but Robby answered the door. Sam realizes Robby lied to her about "finding" the medal on Miyagi-Do's grounds, which is a big betrayal of trust for her, leading to her breaking up with Robby the next day after a heated conversation (which plays out like the conversation she would have had with Robby in 2x10 that was cut short by the bell), though still promising to be friends with him while she works through her reignited feelings for Miguel. Meanwhile, Sam tells Miguel about the mall fight and how Hawk went after Demetri over a Yelp review, prompting Miguel to reveal to Sam that Hawk was the one who stole the medal. Which also provides a segue for her to explain to him her dislike for Tory.
    • Tory is angry seeing Miguel talk to Sam again. She decides to disrupt the conversation by doing something like kiss Miguel to mark her territory (as happened earlier), but Miguel forcefully shoves her away. Undeterred, Tory holds off for a bit and trips Sam later when she thinks Miguel isn't looking. But he notices and clearly sees Tory as the aggressor. He does talk to Tory to find out why she doesn't like Sam, doesn't like the reasons she gives him, and breaks up with her.
    • Sam spends the next few days between the roller rink and Moon's party reconnecting with Miguel, and maybe gets to have dinner with Miguel's mother and grandmother. Robby happens to see Sam with Miguel on one occasion and gets a bit into "green eyed monster" territory.
    • At Moon's party, Miguel makes some efforts to mediate between Demetri and Hawk, with no success. Sam still beats Tory in the drinking contest, and still kisses Miguel later, but there's no cheating going on here (though Miguel feels bad about kissing Sam back while she's plastered). Tory still sees the kiss and decides to start the school brawl over it with the stretched logic of "you stole my boyfriend".
    • Due to a different chain of events, Sam is by Miguel's side when the police break up the party, and he takes her back to his place. Robby goes to Johnny when he can't find Sam, and they find her in the Diaz apartment. Before Daniel turns up, Robby and Miguel get into a mini fight here, due to Robby thinking Miguel took advantage of Sam, but Johnny breaks them up.
    • In the school fight, Miguel gets there first (instead of Robby) and is the one to initially subdue Tory (which obviously angers Tory, seeing Miguel defending Sam from her). It's Robby who starts the boys' fight, rather than Miguel, due to all of his reasons for resenting Miguel boiling over. The individual fights then largely play out the same as in canon, the only difference maybe being that some of Miguel's taunts towards Robby are different.

What if Miguel saw Tory trip Sam at the roller rink?

• So in canon, Tory tripped Sam when Miguel wasn't looking, played victim with a smirk when Sam retaliated and Miguel only saw Sam's retaliation and missed that Tory hit her first. But what would've happened if he had been looking at Sam when Tory tripped her?
  • If he happened to see Tory trip Sam, he would likely confront both of them to try to get an understanding of why they hate each other so much, regarding their rivalry, and maybe also try (but fail) to play mediator. In the moment, though, he'd probably check on Sam since he would know that she was the victim and Tory was the aggressor. Tory would be angry at Miguel for checking on Sam, as would Robby, but based on how Sam apologized when Robby walked up to her earlier (thinking he was Miguel), she likely would have accepted Miguel's help after Tory pushed her. Now Sam would probably still get kicked out of the rink when management turns up, but Miguel doesn't say anything to management about witnessing Tory assault a customer while on the clock, because he's conflicted between siding with Tory or siding with Sam. If he sides with Tory, Sam gets mad at him. If he sides with Sam, Tory gets mad at him for making her realize her relationship with him is on borrowed time. This confusion and conflicting feelings would be carried by Miguel to Moon's party.
    This likely wouldn't lead to Miguel breaking up with Tory right away, but it would begin a snowball effect. As Miguel sees Tory as an aggressor at the same time he begins reconnecting with Sam and becoming friends again. It wouldn't be a sudden change that gets him to break up with Tory, more a gradual change over time that gets him to realize he and Sam have a chance still and he couldn't be with Tory because it's not fair to her. Of course, Tory would still get mad seeing Miguel side with Sam.
  • Miguel would confront Tory right there and then in a "What the hell did you do that for, Tory?" type way. He would also now doubt Tory for the first time, and question their relationship. Miguel wouldn't immediately break up with Tory just yet though, but he would be much colder and more distant from her. And seeing how he had just been defending Tory to Sam right before this, he would feel a bit sheepish about that the next time he sees Sam. Of course, this wouldn't really change much, since his feelings for Sam are still much stronger than his feelings for Tory, so he would still cheat on Tory.
  • It could have been interesting though if Miguel did see the whole thing and knew Tory was the aggressor. He probably would immediately side with Sam, frustrating Tory and Robby in the process. Though when management comes over, Miguel would probably just not say anything, because he's conflicted between siding with Tory or siding with Sam. This would show Miguel's confusion and conflicting feelings going into the party. It would also give Tory more of a reason to be mad at Miguel. Miguel sided with Sam first and she would not like that.

Why didn't Sam get Tory fired?

• I mean, okay, Sam retaliated when Tory tripped her, but Tory started the tension at the roller rink. All Sam and Robby were doing there is going on a date. Sam asked a worker, which turned out to be Tory, for a menu and she was surprised to see Tory. Tory tripped Sam for no reason here. When Sam said "figures" to Tory, that was wrong...but by that time Tory started the tension here. Sam was innocently in line getting her skates fixed and Miguel, who can't stay away from Sam, approaches her in line. Tory sees this, not knowing it was her boyfriend, not Sam to start this conversation, and trips Sam. Sam then retaliated...which was wrong. Tory isn't an innocent victim here but the instigator, and should've been fired for that. She was being extremely unprofessional to a paying customer since she was on the clock and Sam was the customer. Not to mention the kiss Tory plants on Miguel in front of Sam to mark her territory. That was childish and Tory was just being a bitch...and again unprofessional because you don't kiss people while you're on the clock working.
  • Sam would've been torn apart by viewers if this had happened and it would be another piece of supposed evidence to back up the false claim that Sam judges / hates Tory for being poor.
  • Why didn't Daniel tell the teachers Johnny and his gang were brutalizing him and get them expelled, averting the entire franchise? No one in this universe, Miyagi-Do, Cobra Kai or anything else behaves logically, at least most of the time. A combination of the Anthropic Principle (this is a show about Karate and drama) and Humans Are Morons mean everyone constantly makes decisions based on impulse, emotion or pride. YMMV how realistic this is, but Sam opted to take Tory's bait and attack her rather than try to get her fired because it either didn't occur to her, or she figured it wouldn't be certain to work or as satisfying.

Timeline of Moon's party

• In season 2 episode 10, Amanda and Daniel see texts from Aisha come in on Sam's laptop. The date on her computer reads "Mon 8:46 am". And in Aisha's messages, she says Sam got drunk last night which means the party was on Sunday. That said though, when Miguel is trying to text Tory, we see that Miguel had texted Tory on Saturday at 11:40 pm saying that's when the cops showed up. Then he texted her again at 12:07 am on Sunday asking if she was okay. Then a third message on Monday at 8:24 am. So from Miguel's texts, the party apparently happened on Saturday night? These directly contradict each other. It seems that the party happened on Sunday night because if it was Saturday night, that would mean Sam slept all day Sunday at Johnny's and didn't wake up until Monday morning which absolutely did not happen.
  • The dates on Sam's computer are a production goof. The most logical timeline is that Moon's party was on Saturday, Daniel showed up at Johnny's apartment on Sunday morning, and then the first day of school was on Monday. The dates on Miguel's phone seem more reliable, as his text about the cops showing up is a clear reference to Moon's party.
  • But if that's the case, why didn't Miguel call or try to go talk to Johnny on Sunday? Miguel's voicemail said that he tried to talk to Johnny that morning before school about his girl problems. If the party happened Saturday I would have thought he'd try to talk to Johnny about it on Sunday and not wait until Monday morning before school.
    • Probably because Miguel was trying to see if he could get in contact with Tory first (likely having learned his lesson from what happened when Sam got grounded and couldn't talk to him, and also because he feels guilty about cheating on Tory). Texts and calls going ignored for a day or two can easily be rationalized, but right before he calls Johnny on the first day of school, he's seen trying to contact Tory yet again because now she hasn't shown up to school either, and Aisha tells him that's not a good sign. So, he doesn't talk to Johnny on Sunday because he's not freaking out yet. After Tory ignores his texts for an entire day and doesn't show up to school, he's officially freaking out and immediately tries to ask Johnny for help. (With it turning out that the reason Tory wasn't returning Miguel's texts was because she intended for Miguel to see her publicly beating up Sam in school, and Miguel would've stopped her and/or warned Sam that "Tory wants to kick your ass over the kiss", and also because Tory was understandably mad at Miguel over him cheating on her.)

What if Miguel had returned the medal to Sam?

• After Miguel took Miyagi's Medal of Honor from Hawk, he goes to the LaRusso house with the intent of returning it so he can prove to Sam that he wasn't an asshole like the Cobra Kais who trashed Miyagi-Do. He never gets to prove this because Robby's the one who answers the door, and he withholds this from Sam, thinking that Miguel is trying to score points with her. So what would've happened if it was Sam, not Robby, who answered the door and talked to Miguel?
  • Returning the medal was the confirmation Sam needed that Miguel wasn't turning into a Cobra Kai asshole. Season 2 deals with Sam having an internal conflict of accepting who Miguel was when she fell in love with him and who he had become with the Cobra Kai training. She didn't want to believe that he turned into an asshole like the rest of the Cobra Kai who broke into Miyagi-Do and stole the medal in the first place. She just needed proof. Miguel going out of his way to retrieve the medal and return it personally to Sam at her home was his way of showing her that he wasn't the asshole she thought he was (the reason she broke up with him). And also, his way of showing her dad as well. While they would not have reconciled right then and there, she would realize that her feelings for Miguel were still there after that gesture. Likewise, Miguel would see her reaction and have a meaningful interaction with Sam for the first time since the tournament. That would be enough for him to realize that they still had a shot.
    Because of that, it's likely that Sam would break up with Robby on the spot. That day was also the first time Robby and Sam kissed, so their relationship was still very new, and it's easier to end a relationship when it's still in its infancy. And Robby likely would've been okay with that as he had shown that finding a mentor in Daniel and a home with the LaRussos was more important that finding romance with Sam. Sam would tell him that it wouldn't be fair to him to date her while she's reconciling with Miguel, but that doesn't mean Robby would be on his own. She'd still be there for him and the LaRussos could still be that family he never had. Once Robby realized that wouldn't happen, he'd be able to find peace and actually be friends with Miguel and Sam. Meanwhile, being the good guy Miguel is, he would break up with Tory, as knowing that Sam still loves him makes him feel it's not fair to be in a relationship with Tory when his heart is elsewhere. It was different when Sam didn't want him; he had no choice but to move on with his life. But once he knows he could be with the girl he loves, he would end it with Tory, as much for Tory's sake as for his own. But Tory being Tory, she wouldn't take it well and blame Sam for it.

Could Miguel have saved his relationship?

So the show never really tells us explicitly when couples break up other than Hawk and Moon in season 2. We know after the canyon party that Sam is mad at Miguel, but we don't know if they were actually broken up at that point or if she was just giving some time to cool off and then figure things out. What we do know is that definitely after their conversation at the tournament they were 100% broken up. So that begs the question of, what would have happened had Miguel acted differently in that conversation at the tournament?
Sam was clearly still mad at Miguel at the tournament but she did allow him to talk to her, so it's clear that she was trying to give him a chance. Sam doesn't say anything about Miguel not being able to question what was going on between her and Robby; all she says is that she expected him not to try to start a fight which, which is very fair. Talk things out with your girlfriend instead of going right to physical altercation. Miguel, though, is very aggressive in this conversation with Sam. He tells her how Robby is the "enemy" and he needs to strike first and all of that. To which Sam has a horrified reaction that this is the person Miguel had become. Then Miguel goes on to tell her to watch what he does to Robby, obviously insinuating that he wants her to see him beat Robby up. Sam then leaves, extremely distraught over what she just heard Miguel saying. That Miguel was not the boy who defended her in the cafeteria. What would have happened though had Miguel taken a softer approach and tried to be more reasonable here? If, instead of being like, "Well, just wait. Watch what I do to Robby in the finals," it went something like this...

Miguel: Look, I'm sorry about what happened the other night.
Sam: You mean when you hit me?
Miguel: It was an accident. I wasn't trying to hit you.
Sam: You shouldn't have been trying to hit anyone.
Miguel: You—you bring some dude to the party the other night and expect me to be okay with that?
Sam: I expect you to act like a normal person. You don't even know Robby, and you were trying to start a fight with him?
Miguel: You're right, I took it too far. I'm sorry. I was drinking too much and I wasn't thinking clearly. But I saw you laughing with him, being close, and holding hands. How do you think that looks? You don't want to introduce me to your parents, but you have no problem acting all flirty with someone else?

...he could have saved his relationship honestly. Sam broke it off with him because of this person he turned into.

• That would've been a better response, but then Johnny might not ever catch on that some of his lessons are counterproductive. It's kind of ironic that Miguel taught Johnny restraint, and Johnny taught Miguel to be a confrontational dickhead.
• The way Miguel was acting in this particular instance was a huge red flag. Sam did the right thing in distancing herself from Miguel at this point in time due to how he was acting. This was something that he picked up from Johnny's teachings and warnings about the LaRussos. Johnny gave Miguel his biased retelling of what happened in 1984 specifically with the intent of warning Miguel off of associating with the LaRussos, because he is a grown adult who is allowing his problems with another grown adult to spill over into the lives of two teenagers because he can't get over a 33 year old karate rivalry.
• If Miguel couldn't have salvaged his relationship right then and there, at the very least he could put Sam in a position to be more receptive to his attempts to reach out to her after the breakup. His biggest problem in this interaction is that while he apologizes for accidentally hitting her, he doesn't apologize for trying to fight Robby, which is what Sam was looking for. Of course, Miguel didn't apologize for that because at the time, he didn't think that he had done anything wrong (thanks largely to Johnny's and Hawk's bad advice).
• The exact moment where Miguel lost her was when he said, "You have to strike first. You don't wait for the enemy to attack." The way he says that comes off like something he was repeating from what he thought he learned from Johnny. Sam's issue with Miguel was that he started a fight with Robby without even knowing who Robby was. Of course, we the audience know that Miguel saw Robby having dinner with her family and thought he had eyes for Sam, whereas Sam was unaware that ever happened. So that comment left Sam believing that she had lost the sweet Miguel she fell for. Miguel could have apologized for pushing Robby, and admitted he was wrong. He could have said he was drinking a lot and feeling anxious because he hadn't heard from her all day. That when she showed up with Robby, he let his anger get the best of him. If Miguel had gone on to also apologize to Robby at the tournament, that would have shown Sam that he was truly sorry. Maybe that would have made a difference. Sam did give Miguel a chance to explain himself, but he double-downed on what he did unfortunately.
• If Miguel apologized to Sam, what happens would be that she stays to watch him fight Robby in the finals, as he doesn't threaten to hurt Robby. Sam is not mad at Miguel to the point of wanting to leave the tournament early. During the fight, Miguel doesn't fight dirty. Robby still loses, since his injury put him at a disadvantage, but Miguel doesn't further exploit the injury and wins the match fairly. After the fight, Sam, who has stayed neutral during the final, gives a slight nod to Miguel showing that they will talk later and then she leaves. Miguel, happy to have a chance to repair his friendship/relationship with Sam, goes over to check on Robby as well as Johnny.
  Over the days and weeks after the tournament, Miguel and Sam rebuild their friendship and eventually start dating again. Tory never becomes more than just friends with Miguel, instead likely ending up in a relationship with Robby.
  Theoretically, Season 2 would play out roughly the same. Miguel would still be in Cobra Kai, but Daniel would know about his daughter dating Miguel, and be okay with that because Miguel has shown himself to be a good person. Kreese would still slowly take over Cobra Kai, but the reasons would have to be different. This would also force Johnny and Daniel to come together sooner. This wouldn't do anything to eliminate the bad blood between Robby and Miguel, though, because Robby kind of hated Miguel before he even knew him, albeit not for anything personal/specific to Miguel. Miguel only hates Robby because of Sam, but Robby hates Miguel because of Johnny. Everything with Sam just makes Miguel seem even worse to Robby, but the moment he saw Miguel hugging Johnny he had decided that he hated him for "stealing his dad" and hated his dad for "allowing himself to be stolen", and Miguel repairing his relationship with Sam wouldn't really help change that. At best, what happens is that Robby is civil to Miguel for Sam's sake, but that's it.
• Let's imagine that Sam gave Miguel a second chance in season 2. When Miguel calls her from Aisha's phone, she has a conversation with him and decides to give him a chance. He gives a blanket apology for acting like a jealous and paranoid jerk and promises it'll never happen again and so they decide to give it another shot. Miguel loves Sam and is trying his best to make it up to her and she refused to hear him out, when there is no reason for Sam not to have a simple conversation with Miguel. In hindsight, the writers couldn't allow their characters to talk things out because had they connected and talked things out, they would have resolved their misunderstandings, reconciled right then and there, and halted the storyline (given that their breakup was due to a misunderstanding rather than a change of heart by either of them). Perfect communication would kill too many of the storylines, and this is a pretty common scenario in fiction to drive a wedge between a show's main couple without compromising their feelings for one another: deliberate miscommunication so that they are separated because of "misunderstandings" and not a change of feelings or heart. Of course, if Sam and Miguel were still in a relationship or at least working on being friends in Season 2, that means that they would have been talking to each other. This would lead to some real tension between the 2 because of the following:
  • There's the matter of introducing Miguel to her family. Daniel already has his mind made up about "Mr Cheapshot", so Sam can be sure he is going to try and dissuade her if she tells him they are getting back together. She would be in the position of deciding whether to roll the dice and get her dad to have Miguel over for dinner, or get her relationship with Miguel on solid footing before introducing him to Daniel. Sam would have to hope that Amanda will be on her side and can put Daniel in his place if he doesn't approve of Miguel.
  • Robby is definitely going to be living with the LaRussos and training with Sam. So there's the possibility that Miguel gets jealous and paranoid all over again, or tells Johnny about it before Johnny finds out independently.
  • Valley Fest would be a problem, since Cobra Kai hijacked Miyagi-Do's demonstration. Sam would be pissed at Miguel for hijacking her demo. She'd be especially pissed if he doesn't even tell her about it in advance. Now this would be easy enough to fix by Miguel convincing Johnny to wait until Miyagi-Do is finished before they go on. This would alleviate a lot of the tension, but overall there would still be some hard feelings about Cobra Kai's demo outshining Miyagi-Do's.
  • The mall fight would be a huge issue. It's never made clear in the show if Miguel ever learns about the mall fight. But if Miguel and Sam were working on keeping a relationship in season 2, Sam absolutely would have 100% told him about the fight. Then what is Miguel going to do? Stay in Cobra Kai while Hawk takes a gang of their classmates to go after one of Miguel's friends over a petty matter? She would be like, "how can you be friends with that asshole?" or "how can you stay in Cobra Kai after what they did?"
  • Hawk vandalizing Miyagi-Do and taking Mr. Miyagi's medal. How would Sam be okay being with Miguel when the other Cobra Kai kids are doing what they are doing? On the flip side, how would Miguel be okay with staying in Cobra Kai? Also Sam might push Miguel into finding out who was responsible for stealing the medal.

What if Tory had directed her wrath at Miguel rather than at Sam?

• After seeing Miguel cheat on her with Sam at Moon's party, Tory hijacks the PA system and calls out Sam for a fight saying, “Samantha LaRusso, I know what you did and now you're gonna pay for it. I'm coming for you, bitch!” But if she had directed her wrath not at the girl her boyfriend cheated with, but at her boyfriend who did the cheating? As in, “Miguel Diaz, I know what you did and now you're gonna pay for it. I'm coming for you, asshole!”?
  • If Tory went for Miguel, it would kind of go the same as the show, with only a few differences to the start of the fight. Since Miguel is the one who wronged Tory, he would try (unsuccessfully) to calm her down, only for her to attack him. Tory would manage to inflict some serious damage on Miguel, especially if she decided to use her bracelet, but Miguel would only defend and block her punches. She had taken him down before in the dojo in her first episode, she would be capable of doing it again. While Tory is wailing on Miguel, Sam would intervene and pull Tory off Miguel, prompting Tory to turn her wrath onto Sam, who she already hates. When Tory reveals that Miguel kissed Sam, Robby's reaction would be to attack Miguel, who's still reeling from the beating from Tory. Even though Robby’s a Miyagi-Do, his blood would boil with jealousy and his assumption that Miguel took advantage of Sam (based on his experiences with seeing his mother come home drunk with one-night stands). The fights then would play out mostly the same as in the show, but maybe with Robby even madder due to the fact that Sam tried to defend Miguel from Tory.
  • If Robby and Sam are in the hallway and hear Tory reveal that Miguel kissed Sam, Robby would probably not be one to lash out at Miguel and involve himself in Tory and Miguel's fight. He'd be hurt, but talk things out with Sam like a normal person. Sam would reveal that she still has feelings for Miguel, and Robby would walk away. As for how the fight would play out between Miguel and Tory, well, Miguel is the stronger fighter but would mostly try to defend himself. But Tory would fight dirty as she's out for blood. Hawk and Sam would be the likeliest to step in to defend Miguel if needed, but wouldn't because he's clearly the better fighter and seems to have the upper hand, at least until Tory catches him off guard (Miguel is known for being caught off guard by girls - Sam, Aisha, Tory) and gravely wounds him. The season would end with Miguel in the hospital in a similar predicament to canon, though Robby wouldn't be in juvie, Sam wouldn't be in the hospital, and Tory possibly would still only avoid juvie because she's her mother's caregiver. Miguel would still be screwed because he dated a psycho.
  • The reason Tory went after Sam instead of Miguel is because she was trying to hurt both of them at the same time. Two birds with one stone. She doesn't like Sam, but she does like Miguel. If both of them wrong her, it's easier for her to blame the entire thing on the person that she already doesn't like rather than admit to herself that her boyfriend who she does like has feelings for another girl. Tory knows Miguel still has feelings for Sam, and so if Sam gets hurt, he'll get hurt by proxy too. It's also a great way to force Miguel to take a side, because as shown by Tory's reaction to seeing the kiss, to hearing from Kreese that Miguel and Sam saved the All-Valley, or the way she threatens Hawk when she realizes he's defected from Cobra Kai, she's all about loyalty. When it comes down to it in the fight, it's "Will Miguel side with Sam and protect her, or will he back up Tory?"

What was Sam about to say to Robby had she not been interrupted by the bell?

• In this scene at school right before the fight, Robby suggests "no more lying" to Sam and so he comes clean about Miguel returning Mr. Miyagi's medal. Sam then starts to tell Robby something, but is interrupted by the bell and Robby subsequently leaving. But what was Sam going to say if she hadn't been interrupted by the bell? It seems like, based on the topic of the conversation ("no more lying") and what the audience knows, Sam was likely about to tell Robby that she'd kissed Miguel at Moon's party. But was that all she was going to say? Was she planning to apologize? Break up with him? Did she expect that Robby was going to break up with her? Did she go to school that day already planning to tell Robby about the kiss, or did Robby inadvertently guilt her into wanting to tell him?
  • It's possible Sam knew she wanted to tell Robby about the kiss, but didn't know how, then Robby presented the opportunity to come clean and so she decided to just wing it. She probably wanted to apologize (since she never wanted to or meant to hurt Robby).
  • It's not clear if Sam went to school with the intention of telling Robby about the kiss, but she definitely felt guilty about cheating on him, and she was trying to decide when the right time to tell him was. Robby talking about the medal gave her a good segue into telling him about the kiss. The bell cut her off though. And for anyone who's like, "oh Sam should have told him to wait and tell him there and then," this isn't something that can be slotted into a 30 second conversation. That is a long conversation that Robby deserves. It would not have been fair for Sam to tell Robby about the kiss and then just walk away to class and tell him they would talk more about it later. Robby deserved a conversation about it when they weren't crunched by time, which is why Sam did the right thing by not telling Robby about it when the bell rang.
    Had they been able to have a conversation, part of it would be Sam bringing up that she kissed Miguel, and the other part would be why she did so: because Sam learned from Aisha about the fact that Robby lied about the medal. So the conversation would then steer towards the fact that by lying about the medal, Robby robbed Sam of her ability to make a choice between Miguel and Robby when she was of sound mind.
    Sam also probably would have broken up with Robby right there and then, though, out of respect for Robby. She felt guilty about cheating on Robby with Miguel, and in light of the new information about Miguel, she didn't really knew where her heart was. That would be the fairest thing for her to do: she would tell Robby that she couldn't be in a relationship with him while she was still trying to figure out how she felt about Miguel. That if she was going to be with Robby, she would want to make 100% certain she wanted to be with Robby and not have any lingering thoughts about Miguel. So she would have taken the time to try to sort her feelings out. She would still be friends with Robby though while she was trying to sort out her feelings.
  • Sam probably wanted to admit that she kissed Miguel to Robby, but in private so that she wouldn't be humiliated and Robby deserved a long, private conversation explaining everything. But the bell interrupted them and Sam figures, "Oh I'll just talk to him after class." But then Tory goes on the loudspeaker and seconds before throwing the first punch, she says that Sam kissed Miguel before Sam could tell Robby herself, that too in front of the whole school.
    • Robby would've been more hurt learning about the kiss from Sam rather than as a bombshell from Tory right before the fight. Because of the fight and going on the run and ending up in juvie, Robby never really has time to process how he felt. Sam was being attacked by Tory, and no matter how upset Robby might have been in the moment, he still wanted to protect her. But had he been told by Sam directly he would have had time to process everything. He'd arrive at the conclusion he comes to in "The Good, The Bad and the Badass" when he catches her with Miguel: he hid the medal from Sam because he was afraid she'd choose Miguel over him. The first chance she got once she learned about the medal, she did exactly that. He'd feel even more betrayed and wouldn't know what to do next during the school fight.

What if Miguel had gotten to the school brawl first?

• So when Tory threatens Sam on the intercom, Miguel and Robby both rush to where the fight is happening. Robby gets there first, and has things under control before Miguel bum-rushes him for no real reason. But what would've happened if Miguel (who Tory has reasons to be mad at) got there first?
  • Considering Tory does try to fight Miguel when he attempts to stop her in canon (although admittedly by that point she was definitely far more out of control than she was at the start of the fight), she probably would've done so even if he was the one to get to the girls before Robby did. However, it's also possible that if Miguel had shown up and gotten to her at the start of the fight, before Tory had really lost control and given into her rage, he probably would've been able to physically hold her back at least until Sam had gotten out of there. The thing is, in this scenario, Miguel wouldn't really calm Tory down at all, and since she's determined to fight Sam, she'd just seek Sam out again, except the next time she'd probably pick someplace with a very low likelihood of anyone being around to stop her.
  • If Miguel stepped into the fight to stop Tory, it's likely that all Tory would see is Miguel choosing Sam. And that might just tip Tory over the edge and cause her to give into her rage a lot sooner than she does in the actual fight.

Amanda's "No more karate" logic

• Season 2 ended with both Johnny and Daniel in the doghouse with their ladies. Both Amanda and Carmen blame Daniel and Johnny and their rivalry for the injuries suffered by their children. And while fans may think that these guys are being blamed unfailing, you can see the logic behind what these gals are thinking. Or at least, you can with Carmen. Amanda is a little harder to figure out. Because the way I see it, its kinda unfair to blame Daniel for Sam’s injuries.
  On the face of it, Amanda’s reasoning seems to be -“this happened because you opened Miyagi Do”. But that’s not actually true. Tory’s problem with Sam wasn’t with Sam being a Miyagi Do, it was with her making a move on Miguel and Tory going apeshit about it. And that would’ve stayed true even if there had been no Miyagi-Do.
  Let’s say Daniel never opened Miyagi-Do. He kept mentoring Robby, and Sam if she wanted it, and that’s it. This would be only about Daniel’s interest in karate and not his rivalry with Johnny. So would anything really change here? Miguel would still pines after Sam but get together with Tory. Robby and Sam still get together because they are teenagers living under the same roof. Tory and Sam instantly dislike each-other despite there being no dojo rivalry. Miguel still cheats on Tory and Tory still goes after Sam.
  So it doesn’t make a lot of sense for Amanda to blame Daniel here. Now there are a couple of alternate explanations I came up with, but none are particularly satisfying.

1. Amanda doesn’t know the whole story. She thinks this fight was about the dojo rivalry and not Tory's petty grudge against Sam. But if that’s the case, she should change her mind about Daniel’s dojo pretty easily, because, as it turns out, Miyagi-Do actually helped Sam out.
2. She does know the story, but blames Daniel for this teen drama. Without Daniel being so anti-Cobra Kai, Sam might not have broken up with Miguel and the love triangle wouldn’t have developed. But that’s unfair as well, because Sam was with Miguel despite Daniel’s prejudice and she broke up with him due to his behavior. So you can’t blame Daniel for that.
3. She blames Daniel for Robby. That Daniel started training Robby because of his rivalry with Johnny. So they ended up passing down their issues to the kids and it led to that mess. But this wouldn’t be fair either because Amanda had always been supportive of Daniel helping Robby out. In fact, even when Daniel was pissed at Robby for lying about his past, Amanda prompted him to forgive and support his student.
4. The most reasonable explanation is that Amanda thinks that without the Miyagi-Do vs. Cobra Kai rivalry, things wouldn’t have gotten this bad. That even if the two girls had beef with each-other, someone would’ve stepped in and stopped the fight before it started. The dojo rivalry, however, turned it into a brawl and things ended up way worse than they should have. But even that's a bit shaky given that most of the Cobras actually revel in violence.
   • From Amanda's perspective, all she saw was Daniel being a Manchild about an old high school rivalry and passing on this attitude to his daughter and several other high school kids by opening his own karate school (Daniel almost certainly hasn't confided at all in his family about what Terry Silver put him through). It's not unreasonable for her to think that if it weren't for Daniel refusing to let go of his grudge towards Johnny and continuing to try to destroy Cobra Kai, the school fight wouldn't have happened. Fortunately, in Season 3, she realizes that it was actually more because of Kreese's influence, as Cobra Kai is still actively bullying Sam and the other Miyagi-Dos without Johnny around. Thus, she changes her mind on "no more karate".

Why didn't the school get put on lockdown?

• When Tory called out Sam on the intercom, why the hell did the students even get dismissed into the hallway? Why did the school not immediately go into full lockdown and call the police? Especially in a post-Columbine world, shouldn't the school be assuming that Tory has a gun or a knife? For that matter, where are the security guards? The principal says to get security on the radio, so this big school in Los Angeles apparently has one or two security guards that take five minutes to respond to a fight in the school?
  • The staff at West Valley aren't exactly competent.

Don't Provoke the Hawk

• Alright, Demetri isn't half as smart as he pretends to be, but what was he thinking insulting Hawk the way he did at the party? He didn't appear to be drunk, and by this point, he knows Hawk has no problem attacking him in front of witnesses or taking his aggression out on his friends in Miyagi-Do. If he wanted to shame Hawk, why not accuse him of being every brutal bully stereotype, vandalizing Miyagi-Do, or imply that Hawk is an up-and coming school shooter? Hawk would then be embarrassed, but also couldn't retaliate without validating what Demetri said.
  • While Demetri wasn't as visibly drunk as Sam was, it's likely that he consumed just enough alcohol to lower his inhibitions and this, combined with his immediate anger at having the drink poured on him, is what caused him to decide to get even by exposing all of his embarrassing secrets.

Season 3

Finish Her!

• Why on Earth would they just let Tory run away at the end of the house fight? The psycho has already tried to murder Sam twice and now she lead an attack on Sam's freaking house and tried to murder all of them! Yeah, yeah, Mercy and all that, but Tory really should've been an exception. After she leads a gang of thugs to your house and tries to murder and all your friends, it's time to say screw it and just beat her bloody. Letting her go is just asking for Tory to try and murder Sam AGAIN!
  • Tory and the rest of the Cobra Kai students (sans Robby) committed textbook breaking and entering, property damage, assault, and, yes, even attempted murder. Bear in mind, Cobra Kai did not get off scot-free for their involvement in the school brawl and Tory was on parole with a clear warning that any future infractions will have her incarcerated. Presumably, Sam will likely tell her parents about what Tory did and they will call the police to have Tory arrested and charged with about a dozen counts of burglary, assault, and battery, especially since Amanda saw Tory's expulsion as a mere slap on the wrist. As this is a clear violation of her parole, she'll be sent straight to juvie. This should keep Sam safe from Tory's wrath for at least a time.
  • Two things ensure Tory’s continued freedom: 1) If the LaRussos get the police involved, Hawk will also get arrested alongside the other Cobra Kais, because the law doesn't care about his Heel–Face Turn. Hawk still broke into a house with the intent to assault its occupants, and fought on Cobra Kai's side for 90% of the fight. And 2) the police getting involved gives Kreese an opening to retaliate by press charges of aggravated assault against Johnny and Daniel, as they both broke into his place of business and attacked him. The audience knows that he more than had it coming, but from a law enforcement perspective, Kreese holds all the cards. So the LaRusso home rumble is likely to have even less consequences than the one at the school. With neither side having clean hands, they're locked into a stalemate.
  • Daniel and Amanda also are probably worried about the legal ramifications for the kids. They probably want to save these kids, and preferably don't want to do that by saddling these kids with criminal records that will follow them the rest of their lives. And Daniel did allow Hawk to attend the combined Miyagi-Do / Eagle Fang at the end after all. The LaRussos' dealership and Daniel’s reputation might have also been a consideration. Imagine after the high school fight, your daughter and her on-and-off boyfriend defend karate to have the All-Valley Tournament, and then another karate gang fight happens at your house the very next day.
  • Which is exactly why Sam should've beaten Tory down. She's attempted to murder Sam twice now on top of leading a gang of violent thugs to their house to attack everyone. Give her what she deserves. Even if for whatever reason they don't call the cops, it'll be something to make Tory think twice the next time she and her gang try to attack Sam.
    • Let's be honest: way more kids than just Tory and Robby should be in legal trouble, seeing as by this point in the show, the Cobra Kais are not just bullies, they're outright criminals willing to attack unarmed opponents with weapons (Tory), wail on an opponent who's still recovering from physical injury (Kyler), condone cheating in a competition, steal money, valuables and animals from unauthorized areas, vandalize places, and break into houses.
  • Alternately, if criminal charges are out of the question, Daniel and Johnny could go to have Tory and the other Cobra Kais all be banned from the All Valley Tournament. Daniel still has a seat on the board, so he could easily sway the vote with the help of Johnny, (who based on their last interaction is well liked by the board). Daniel's argument would be simple in making a case that Kreese hasn't changed his ways at all: "For 33 years, Cobra Kai was banned from participation in the All-Valley Tournament due to the unethical and unsportsmanlike conduct shown by senseis Terry Silver, John Kreese, and their student Mike Barnes. Last year, the board rescinded the ban due to Johnny Lawrence being the new sensei. Since that ruling, Johnny Lawrence is no longer with Cobra Kai, and the current sensei is once again John Kreese, the man who's actions resulted in the original ban. Since Sensei Kreese retook his position as the head of Cobra Kai, he has been training the dojo's students to be violent criminals who have terrorized students and civilians alike. His students picked a fight with my students at the mall and trashed my dojo because one of them wrote a bad Yelp review of their dojo. In August, one of his students, Tory Nichols, picked a fight with my daughter and tried to kill her over a kiss. And this past December, Kreese had Miss Nichols led a gang of Cobra Kai students to break into my house and assault a gathering of Miyagi-Do students and Johnny Lawrence's students. In between these two, a gang of Cobra Kais ambushed my Miyagi-Do students in a laser tag facility and broke one of their arms." Video evidence would show the school fights all being instigated by Cobra Kais, as well as a Cobra Kai student assaulting a teacher), there's probably some CCTV evidence of the Cobra Kai gang assaulting Nate, Mitch could let Johnny know what happened to Brucks, Daniel could mention the fiasco of the snake in his dealership (and the conveniently timed phone call by Kreese).
    • Then Kreese hires a lawyer and appeals on the basis that Cobra Kai, now readmitted, has done nothing in the tournament to warrant expulsion. The All-Valley committee are not the police. Nor are they social campaigners. They, like all such groups, have limited jurisdiction confined solely to their own areas of concern. Also, with the Valley in general turning against karate and needing a Hail Mary speech from Miguel to save the tournament, the last thing Daniel or Johnny want at this point is getting into a legal slugfest with Kreese and airing their further dirty laundry in public. Kreese can afford to burn the house down to win, Johnny and Daniel cannot.
    • Not to mention Johnny and Daniel have a small problem, in that a lot of the Cobra Kai students who took part in those actions are now former Cobra Kai students ... and current Miyagi-Do or Eagle Fang students (Hawk instigated the mall fight, the trashing of Miyagi-Do, beating up Nate, and the arcade fight, and Mitch participated in most of these too; Chris participated as a Cobra Kai in the mall fight). They use that stuff to get Kreese banned and they risk getting a lot of their own students banned, too. Though that's not to say Daniel won't maybe try to use his influence on the committee that oversees the All-Valley Tournament to create headaches for Kreese.
  • Daniel and to a greater extent Johnny have more to lose from getting the cops involved.
    • With Johnny, Kreese could absolutely nail Johnny with charges as he started the fight at the dojo against a "harmless old veteran". Taking into account Johnny already has faced charges for attacking teenagers (Kyler's crew in season 1) and random people (those guys in the parking garage at the start of season 3). He could even get him on parental abuse charges for shoving Robby against the lockers, in a, "I'm trying to help this unstable teenager with lodging and training and then his deranged father comes in looking to fight" type way. Robby would probably even testify in favor of Kreese and he wouldn't even have to lie about it.
    • Daniel is slightly safer in that if his house has security cameras (it would be weird if he didn't have them), he could claim he only went in to confront Kreese about sending his students to his house. He'd have the footage in his favor. And that not even three minutes inside the dojo, Kreese shoved him out through the front window. The strip mall might not have cameras, but then again, Kreese's restraining order against Amanda might work against Daniel, so who knows. There's also the whole fact that Daniel understands that most of these students have been poisoned by Kreese's mentality (especially since Daniel once was himself, albeit under Terry Silver), so probably doesn't want to ruin their lives with criminal records.
    • Kreese has deniability in that it's plausible his students went rogue. Granted he'd also risk losing his "army", so it's likely he doesn't want to take the risk of ever getting the police involved, especially when the show makes clear Kreese isn't all that great at building new fighters up from scratch the way Daniel or Johnny can.

Daniel doesn't know Japanese

• It is shown time and again that Daniel is an avowed Japanophile, and that his business specializes in selling Japanese brand cars and his key distributor is the Japanese company Doyona International. So how come he never learned to speak the language, as it is revealed in Season 3?
  • Likely because it was never all that necessary. Miyagi always conversed with Daniel in broken English, Doyona International has English-speaking representatives and it's clear in Season 3 that Daniel hadn't been back to Okinawa for ages so likely his only trips to Japan were business-related. While Daniel is a huge Japanophile, learning a new language takes a great amount of dedication and work that wouldn't really be worth it if he didn't have anyone else to actually mandate the usage of the language.
  • Daniel probably suggested he should learn Japanese to Miyagi at some point and Miyagi dissuaded it for some reason "you no need". Miyagi is almost divine in Daniel's eyes so Daniel is extremely prone to take all his advice quite seriously and literally.
  • Also, there's a big difference betwen learning some words and phrases, and really mastering a language. As with anything else, it takes not just a lot of effort to learn, but maintaining it takes constant practice. Daniel doesn't have anyone else to speak Japanese with, and given how incredibly serious the situation is, he's not going to risk speaking in a second language, even if he knows enough Japanese to make himself understood in a general social context. He will come across as much more professional if he speaks in English, a language he's absolutely fluent in.

Robby's fate after being released from juvie

• Why is Robby homeless? I get that he was hiding out before going to juvie, but why is a minor released from juvie with no parent or guardian to speak for him? I get that CPS doesn't do much if the child is over 16, but shouldn't someone be responsible for him?
  • Shannon was presumably the designated guardian but as she was still in rehab, she called Johnny to pick him up. Unfortunately, Robby was still pissed at both him and Daniel for how they treated him during the season and wanted nothing to do with either of them. Though that doesn't explain why he would go to Miyagi-Do.
    • Pretty sure he went there to see Sam, only to find her with Miguel.

What were Robby's intentions at Miyagi-Do?

• So after getting out of juvie, Robby checks in with the probation officer (which is where he crosses path with Tory), then he goes to Miyagi-Do, and sees Miguel and Sam flirting and play-fighting. Of course, he didn't know that either of them would be there, and so, he clearly did not intend to fan the flames of drama. Except when Johnny and Daniel greeted him on his release, Robby made it very clear to Daniel that he wanted nothing to do with him, insisting that Daniel stay out of his life. So why did Robby show up to Miyagi-Do? Was he simply looking for peace in a familiar place? Shelter? Was he wrestling with the idea of joining Kreese at Cobra Kai?
  • Daniel told Robby he'd always have a home at Miyagi-Do. Later in the probation office, the last thing Tory said to Robby was to check off "stable" for home life because nobody bothers to check. After Tory says that, Robby looks down in thought. Robby doesn't have a home, but Miyagi-Do was like a second home to him before the school fight (which also explains why Sam came here in the first episode of season 3 when she walked out of school). It makes sense he went there to crash for the night. It was late. He probably didn't expect anyone to be there. The next morning, after staying at Cobra Kai, he even told Kreese he just needed a place for the night, and Tory had to talk him into staying.
  • Robby showing up at Miyagi-Do is a strange choice of the writers, especially because of his earlier statement to Daniel and the fact that there's no real reason that the scene has to take place at Miyagi-Do. But from a writing standpoint, the purpose of the scene is likely twofold: 1) to show that Sam and Miguel are rekindling their spark (seriously, they go in the span of twelve hours from "Robby, it's not what you think!" to passionately making out on the dojo floor), and 2) for Robby to feel like the last person he had left betrayed him just like everyone else. Moreso the second point, seeing as for Robby, Sam bringing Miguel over to Miyagi-Do exacerbates the feeling that Miguel has truly "taken" everything from him: his dad, his championship win, his girl, his freedom, and now his dojo (and by extension, Daniel).
  • It may well be that he'd calmed down offscreen and was going back to try to mend bridges...only to find that the first girl he ever loved was making moves on another guy.

Kreese and the law

• John Kreese has been shown to get the better of hotheads, like Amanda LaRusso, by not striking first and being technically in the bounds of law, without hard to prove outside context taken into account. But how does he get out of legal consequences for threatening to cut off Tory's landlord's fingers, or beating up Armand's enforcers?
  • Notice what those three people have in common: it is really not in their best interest to have the police asking Kreese why he was beating them up.
    • In the landlord's case, Kreese can claim that Tory's landlord was trying to coerce sex out of a minor, and Tory can vouch for him, claiming that she went to Kreese for help instead of to the cops because her probation status made her hesitant to go through legal channels. There may be some questions as to why Kreese resorted to threatening the landlord instead of just filing a police report or informing Tory's case worker, but he can sweat them.
    • In Armand's case, there's three strikes against him. 1) If it comes down to getting someone's side of the story, who is a judge going to believe? Two huge guys who look like gangsters, or a 75 year old army vet? We only have Armand's word for whether or not the rental agreement had a legal escape clause. 2) I checked, and those brass knuckles are illegal in California. Armand's nephews could've been charged just for possessing them. 3) Most states have laws protecting tenants from being evicted unfairly. Evictions can take months in court, it simply can't be done with just a day's notice; this is especially true if you've paid your rent on time (like Kreese has). If Armand had reported Kreese for the assault, Kreese could've just reported Armand.

"No bets you asshole, I'm pressing charges."

• Why do either Johnny or Daniel agree to Kreese's karate challenge? He has literally sent people to Daniel's house to injure or kill his kids, along with the kids of several other people. Yeah, even if you could argue that Johnny or Daniel going to Kreese's place of business (which I maintain was probably created in the first instance as a Sole Trader bound to Johnny) technically puts them both in the wrong and Kreese could argue that in a court, I'm more than certain either of those could be dismissed as crimes of passion (Johnny's recently crippled student was beaten up badly, Daniel's property and family were assaulted). Oh yeah, and there's also the snake-in-my-dealership thing. That at the very least should incontrovertibly put Kreese in breach of the law, right? There's the phone-call right before it happened too, and I'm more than certain that Daniel's company records phone messages for compliance and training, surely?
  • Because it buys them time. As it stands right there and then, Kreese is gonna keep on coming after them and he is a slippery manipulative customer who has wriggled out of everything so far, so there is no indication that they have him dead to rights. At very least they need time to retreat and regroup. Plus, and this is the main one, Daniel and Johnny are as big a pair of drama queens as Kreese is when it comes to karate and their little vendetta. They both want this outcome, whether they are conscious of it or not, and want to defeat him on his own terms.
  • They have no proof Kreese put the snake in the car or that he sent the Cobra Kai students to Daniel's house. Considering how many incidents have occurred between all the students even before Kreese was in the picture, it'd be an extremely difficult argument to make.
    • It would be very easy. People associated with Kreese's dojo broke into a house, destroyed a tremendous amount of property, and assaulted a bunch of people who were there for a party. With the town already on edge over karate's effects and the fact that it happened on the LaRussos' property, it would be extremely easy for Daniel and the Miyagi-Do kids to press criminal charges. That the people who came to the dojo were students of Kreese would make it a very easy connection to be made and people who had heel-face realizations like Hawk and Chris would make it extremely easy to ruin Kreese's reputation. It's basically a matter of just needing to keep the story moving, rather than have a big legal trial and have all the Cobra Kais (save for Robby) spend the fourth season in jail.
  • What got brought up in one of the episodes is that Kreese utilized his Green Beret argument as a "war hero" to get people to sympathize to him over Daniel and Johnny.
  • It makes sense why the cops didn't get involved in regards to the home invasion. Obviously, in the heat of the moment, there was no opportunity to call 911 (when you’re being attacked, you're not gonna have time to pull out your phone and call the cops). The police wouldn't be able to arrive until after all the Cobra Kai kids were gone. Though that still leaves the question of why they couldn't just call the cops afterwards. The Cobras just caused thousands of dollars in property damage, as well as numerous counts of assault, and Tory is on the hook for one count of assault with a deadly weapon. The Cobra Kai kids were everywhere, and likely left plenty of forensic evidence behind. They could try to claim that they were being framed by kids who they had a well known rivalry with, but even the most incompetent police department would manage to pin the crime on them. Kyler would definitely break down and snitch as well.
    But the real reason Daniel and Johnny couldn't go to the police was because they attacked Kreese. They trespassed on Kreese's property, and attacked him. Sure, we know all the karate rivalry, but look at it through the eyes of a court: Johnny is an alcoholic with several counts of assault and battery, including against minors. Daniel trained the kid who kicked another student over a railing, and Amanda had a restraining order put on her by Kreese. Both of them have a very public grudge against Kreese, one they literally aired in public just a few days previously. Now, imagine you're a juror, and you hear that those two attacked the polite, well spoken, elderly war veteran who spent his time helping disadvantaged youths learn valuable life lessons. For someone who doesn't know the backstory, Johnny and Daniel look guilty as hell, especially if Kreese decides to play the old man card. For him, taking that kind of beating is no problem, but a regular 75 year old? That could kill them.
    There'd be no possible way to trace the Cobra Kai kid's actions back to Kreese, because he didn't explicitly tell Tory and Kyler, "I want you two to break into Daniel LaRusso's house and assault his students." None of them would dare rat him out, and he has Robby to supply him with an alibi. Kreese can't be held liable for the actions of his "rogue" kids. Even if Hawk turns, it's the word of a war hero against a teenage criminal who'd have to admit to several crimes.
    In other words, if Daniel or Johnny calls the cops on the Cobra Kai kids, Kreese calls the cops on Johnny and Daniel, in an act of mutually assured destruction (something Kreese, as a military man, would understand well). If Tory & co. go down, Johnny and Daniel go down with them. And then what does Kreese do? Just recruit a brand new batch of kids (it took him what, a week to find five or six perfect recruits?). Within a month or two, Kreese is back exactly where he was, this time with an even better situation (if Sam or Robby or Miguel accuse him of anything, he just claims they want revenge for their father-figures). It then leaves the Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang kids with no senseis, and no training, against an even bolder Kreese.
    • It's pretty obvious this is how the show is planning to avoid subjecting the Cobra Kai kids who broke into the LaRusso house with prison time. Season 3 gave us a glimpse of how savvy Kreese is at playing with the law to get away with his plans. He also knew Johnny and Daniel well enough to anticipate their reactions. Too bad Daniel and Johnny didn't outsmart Kreese this time and just call the cops on him and his gang instead of reacting. And the fact that they agreed to Kreese's proposal to settle their differences at the tournament is an indication that charges will likely not be pursued in season 4...
  • If Daniel acted rationally when he found out about the attack, he would have called the police to document everything and press criminal charges. Tory would be instantly sent to juvie without ever setting foot in a courtroom since she violated her probation, but the other kids would all go to court. If they somehow beat the rap, he would hire a lawyer to sue these kids' parents in civil court. The moment the parents get the summons, they'd be quick to pull their kids out of Cobra Kai, since their time, lawyers fees, paychecks and assets are on the line thanks to their kids' behavior.
  • Both Johnny and Daniel reacted emotionally, very predictable, especially for Daniel, who has always been a hothead. It's actually quite possible that Amanda called the police, who knows? But Daniel and Amanda have together already experienced Kreese's ability to wriggle out of things. Besides, it's unlikely Kreese explicitly "sent" CK to the LaRusso house. He may or may not have manipulated them to do so. As for the kids, who knows, maybe there will be consequences in the next season. As mentioned above, Tory certainly has violated her probation and there are ample witnesses she was there. Considering how much of a psychopath she is, it seems almost certain Amanda will force the issue.
  • Daniel and Johnny fucked themselves and their students over by attacking Kreese, and there's really no excuse (save the Doylist one that the fight was supposed to be at Myagi-Do) especially considering Amanda made the exact same mistake and paid the price for it earlier. By doing so, they prevented any legal action, effectively prolonging the feud and allowing Cobra Kai, which is now a gang of violent, possibly muderous criminals to continue to run free. They evidently didn't think one iota about what they actually wanted to accomplish by confronting Kreese in the time it took to listen to the kids' testimonies and drive over to the strip mall, because the only three possible outcomes were A. They yell at Kreese, and he doesn't care. B. They beat Kreese in a fight, he's recovered in a few days and its back to business as usual, or C. they kill Kreese and go to prison. That much blind anger over sustained over that amount of time is more than "hothead" its "Medically fascinating, you're lucky you're not in prison, and the Myagi-Do-Eagle Fang alliance needs new leaders." The house fight and the fight with Kreese, like the school and mall fights, seems an instance where Rule of Drama and the desire for climactic action scenes took precedence over logic or making the characters sympathetic.
    • They may have been thinking that if they gave Kreese a good enough beatdown, he'd respect them enough to back down. Law of the jungle—when the big dog's walking, little dogs step aside. Still absolutely stupid, but a bit more understandable.

Kyler getting away with bullying Demetri in Season 3

• I get the Adults Are Useless thread throughout the show. But are we really supposed to accept that this hypervigilant school doesn't notice Demetri walking around with a penis on his cast? Or more insanely, how Kyler holds Demetri's arm up and calls everyone's attention to it. The school counselor notices a fight nearly breaking out between the Cobra Kais and Miyagi-Dos during lunch once, but no teacher notices that?
  • That's pretty true to life in my experience. If you gave detention to every teenage boy that drew a penis on someone else's belongings you'd have an entire school going in over the weekend.
  • It's less the drawing dicks and more the blatantly obvious bullying when the school is actively cracking down on anything perceived as aggressive. The only way Kyler could be more extra about it is if he put it on YouTube and titled the video, "check out this prime bullying right here!"
    • Many schools don't actually care all that much about bullying. They pay lip service but when it comes time to get off their lazy butts and actually act on it, the staff will choose to either bury their heads in the sand, blame the victim(s) or both. Kyler getting away with being an asshole is sadly realistic. Remember, they never did anything about his actions prior to Season 1, either him being an asshole to Miguel and his friends, or him slutshaming Sam. Why start now?
    • Well they would start now as opposed to not doing it in Season 1 because they started cracking down on bullying hard or anything perceived as even remotely aggressive because of the school brawl, remember? Season 1 was before the school brawl while Season 3 was after it. Remember, Counselor Blatt was hounding on kids for way less than what Kyler was doing to Demetri in the cafeteria. So them cracking down on Kyler drawing a dick on Demetri's cast in Season 3 while doing nothing about his antics in Season 1 would make sense, given the Season 3 events were post-school brawl and the Season 1 events were pre-school brawl. Them not hounding Kyler down is the real mystery as the OP stated in the first place.
    • Again, school faculty stick their heads in the sand when it comes to the subject of bullying. This is no different. And considering Blatt's displayed incompetence, I wouldn't put too much faith in her doing anything about Kyler either.
  • By this point in time, the Cobra Kai students have picked up some of Kreese's manipulation tactics, as seen a few episodes prior with Hawk. But even before he joined Cobra Kai, Kyler was attempting to downplay / lie when he got called out about his bullying behavior. So even if a teacher caught Kyler messing with Demetri in the cafeteria, it's hard to imagine whether he'd have to face punishment other than getting detention. You have to realize that the school being "hypervigilant" is a farce constructed to appease the parents who were upset after the school fight. The goal of their new initiatives wasn't really to keep the students from getting bullied, it was about keeping their parents from complaining and possibly from suing. And sadly, it's a simple reflection of how schools handle bullying in real life: they're completely useless when bullying happens, yet when you've had enough and fight back, you get in trouble.
    • The school's response to the season 2 rumble had more to do with the fight happening in public and two students ending up in the hospital, than the fight itself. The authorities care about image over substance, from banning the tournament to Counselor Blatt's uselessness in stopping school bullying. The Cobra Kai students know this, and simply shift their bullying and violence elsewhere with no adults watching for the most part.

Why does Kreese ultimately choose Robby as his "champion" over Hawk?

• This has been bothersome for a bit, but from the very start of Kreese coming back to Cobra Kai in Season 2 he's been adamant about getting Robby on board, and in Season 3 goes out of his way to bring him into the fold to be his next "champion" or The Ace of Cobra Kai. The question is...why? For all intents and purposes Hawk pretty much fits what he wants in a champion to a T. He's absolutely ruthless, vicious, fights without any sense of mercy and follows each of his orders but without being a complete drone or kiss ass as he's willing to question Kreese periodically (and Kreese does seem to respect those willing to do that). But you definitely get the sense, even as he does every so often give Hawk some advice or positive reinforcement, that he never really completely buys into Hawk being the man for the job and it's shown that the two aren't particularly close especially when compared to Kreese's relationship with Robby or even Tory. It's possible that Hawk loses too many fights but Robby's record is nowhere near spotless himself. It's also possible that he felt that Hawk was a Heel–Face Turn risk but Kreese was really the one that helped kickstart that with his own decision making and Robby's history in series' run should show that he's not exactly reliable on that end either. Is it all just an obsession with Johnny that's manifesting through Robby at this point?
  • Pretty much that, yeah. He feels betrayed by Johnny and is simply using Robby for revenge.
  • Martin Kove has said in interviews that Kreese, in his own twisted way, sees Johnny as a surrogate son, which is why he constantly tries to get Johnny back on his side even when he claims it's Johnny's last chance. It seems he's extended those same feelings to Robby solely because Robby is Johnny's son.
  • Robby is Johnny's son and Daniel's student, and Kreese wants to specifically get under both their skins. Johnny for his own perceived betrayals and Daniel because he was Miyagi's protege. Using Robby as his tool, suborning him, means that he is hurting both Johnny and Daniel, and also, by proxy, Miyagi. Hawk just doesn't tick the boxes for crazy old man revenge like Robby does.
  • He also doesn't see Hawk as a natural fighter because he was a wimpy nerd before he flipped the script. Kreese even makes a jibe to that effect when recruiting Kyler. He prefers the likes of Robby and Tory as potential champions because of their rougher upbringings and criminal pasts (Tory's in particular). He was happy to manipulate Hawk for his own purposes, but he never saw him as alpha material and was always waiting for someone better to come along.
  • Kreese is starting to see hesitation and questioning from Hawk, since Miguel's injury. He sees that Robby can be manipulated and molded into the person Kreese wants in the team.
  • Kreese doesn't want anyone who would challenge his methods or motives. The same reason why Miguel wouldn't have worked under him. Kreese has to have you buy in to his teachings, or else you are easily replaceable to him. Look at Bert. Kreese only wanted loyalty. Hawk was able to buy in, until he started to see all of his friends leaving (Mitch and Bert, most notably) and then especially when Kreese allowed Kyler to join, and then recruited "the enemy" (Robby) without a question. Kreese, like any dictator leadership, wants complete loyalty, no questions. If you aren't "all in", you're out.
  • Hawk also had too many connections to Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang, seeing as his two closest friends (Demetri and Miguel) were in those dojos, so Kreese knew he was going to flip eventually. Kreese just manipulated Hawk’s anger and resentment for the real world to provide a placeholder until someone stronger comes along.
  • Kreese just simply saw Hawk as undesirable because he used to be a weak nerd, he had to be shaped, he wasn't a "natural Cobra". It's the same reason he didn't bat an eye towards Miguel: Kreese is only interested in natural fighters, which is why he goes and recruits Kyler and Brucks. How he handles Tory also backs this up. When Tory walked into the dojo, she was already a solid kickboxer, which is why Kreese paid extra attention to her. Kreese is shown to, somewhat, care for Tory as he does what he can to keep her in the dojo, all because she's a natural Cobra. He doesn't care about Hawk because he was not a natural Cobra.
  • Kreese spends season 3 phasing out all of the holdouts from Johnny's Cobra Kai (see Bert and Mitch, most notably). Hawk is possibly the only exception to this. Kreese had a similar stance on Hawk to what he had on Miguel during season 2: if he could hold onto his loyalty then, fine, another soldier for the ranks, but if not then he would just drop him instead of fighting too hard to keep him on. He kind of winds up unintentionally phasing out Hawk anyway. Kreese seeing Hawk as a soldier rather than a leader means that he viewed Hawk like he views all of the other basic soldiers in the group: as being totally dispensable.

How is the tournament still on in Season 4?

• I can wrap my head about the fact that Kreese is still not in jail at Season 3's end simply because Season 4 needs a villain. However, when the city council gets word that kids broke and entered the home of another student with intent to do serious harm, how are they still going to let the tournament go on?
  • Ultimately we'll have to wait and see how Season 4 deals with this, but considering everyone was wondering how Tory and Stingray were still walking around without getting arrested at the end of Season 2 before Season 3 showed they did face legal consequences for the school brawl, it's safe to say there will be some fallout from the home invasion, even if it hasn't been immediately apparent.
  • It turns out there was no fallout as Daniel did not call the authorities to alert them to the invasion.

What is Johnny Lawrence's new economic model?

• At the end of the 3rd season, he joins forces with Daniel, who charges nothing for karate lessons. How does he make money now?
  • Maybe Johnny still charges for his students for his training like a personal trainer. And Johnny did spend some time in Season 3 looking for a new job that will probably continue into Season 4, where he and Daniel will presumably address about keeping the lessons free or start charging both Eagle Fang and Miyagi-Do students.
  • Perhaps he takes a job at the dealership (on paper) and Daniel uses the dealership for Wax On, Wax Off training with the Eagle Fangs like he did with Robby.

Why are Tory and her younger brother not in foster care?

• Tory is a 17 year old girl who works and takes care of her 10 year old brother Brandon due to their mother needing dialysis and not being able to work. Shouldn’t the state have intervened and put them in foster care, since the mother is clearly incapable of taking care of 2 minor children?
  • Tory is likely legally emancipated since she is working and the one paying rent. This would mean the apartment belongs to her. An emancipated minor is legally allowed to take care of their siblings, and her mother is an adult, so she is just allowing her mom to stay in her apartment.

No one goes to be Miguel's backup?

• It seems so unrealistic that in the LaRusso house brawl, no one helps him after he just learnt to walk after being in a coma. Same as Hawk being willing to fight Miguel when he was in the Cobra Kai mindset. When Hawk is looking around and having his change of heart, we know that Kyler is beating Miguel up in the same room since we see them as Hawk takes down the two who are about to re-break Demetri's arm. Does everyone just think of Miguel as capable since he's never really needed help? I mean Demetri and Hawk handshake like five times and don't even notice Miguel getting his ass kicked by Kyler.
  • Cobra Kai was winning this fight before Hawk switched sides. As he looks around, he's seeing all of his old friends getting beaten up. Before then, no one really had the opportunity to run over and help Miguel. As for why no one helped Miguel afterwards, this was a massive brawl. It's chaotic. Remember how hard it was during the school fight to get anyone to step in try to stop the whole thing, or even to try and help Sam. We do see Miguel, Hawk, and Demetri run in together to stop Sam and Tory's fight in the mini dojo, so they did apparently link up at some point offscreen.
  • An interesting note is that this fight wasn't actually supposed to be inside the LaRusso house. That was a last second change. The fight was originally supposed to be in the backyard of the Miyagi-Do dojo. There's a possibility the fight was set up a bit differently when it was supposed to be in that location.

Why even do the house brawl?

• So Miguel and Sam's town hall speech successfully gets the tournament reinstated, which is the whole reason the three senseis were there. But afterwards, it seems Kreese is mad at that the tournament is back on, and Miguel and Sam were the ones that saved it. So why did the Cobra Kais even attack the LaRusso house? Was Tory really that pissed that Sam had gotten back together with Miguel? We know why Kyler agreed to her plan (to attack Miguel), but she said the rest of the Cobra Kais thought she was crazy, so why would they even follow her?
  • Kreese probably figured that Sam and Miguel were going to act as the bridge that brings Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang together, from the way Sam came to Miguel's side to back him up when he took the podium. So he lit a stick of dynamite (Tory) and threw it at them. And it almost worked. The Cobra Kais were winning before Hawk changed sides.
  • Kreese is the type that enjoys the psychological warfare on a daily basis. The tournament is the main event of course, but that's not going to stop Kreese from getting his daily kicks tormenting the opposition.
  • Throughout the show, the three Senseis have been imparting their teachings on their students, but the students have been acting/not acting on those teachings on their own. In Kreese's case, he winds his pawns up and then lets them loose because he knows they'll do something thanks to his goading. But he doesn't know exactly what they'll do because the specifics don't matter, just that whatever happens riles up Johnny and/or Daniel. In season 2, he wound up Hawk to go do something, but he didn't explicitly say, "What you're gonna do is trash the Miyagi-Do dojo and steal the Medal of Honor". He only told Hawk that the fight is over only when you say it's over. In season 3, Kreese obviously had nothing to do with the arcade fight and Hawk breaking Demetri's arm, but when Amanda confronts Kreese, she accuses Kreese of teaching his students to do such a thing. In this case, Kreese didn't know about the home invasion, but just knew that Tory would do something if he pushed her buttons by bringing up Sam and Miguel ("Oh you didn't hear? Diaz and that LaRusso girl. Yeah, they're working together. Yeah, they helped save the All Valley. They gave quite a speech. They make a pretty good team."). Not exactly the kind of thing you go apeshit over unless you're already of that mindset. Kreese didn't tell Tory, "What you're gonna do is break into Daniel LaRusso's house and start a fight with anyone who's there." That was all Tory's idea. She likely would've done the same thing if Robby mentioned catching Sam and Miguel about to kiss at Miyagi-Do, or if Kyler mentioned seeing Sam and Miguel holding hands at school.
  • Kreese is a bully, plain and simple. To him, it's about winning instead of fighting fair. Remember at the tournament in the first movie, he told Bobby to cripple Daniel and ordered Johnny to "sweep the leg". But back then, Kreese made a deal with Miyagi to keep his students away from Daniel until the tournament. This time, he's made no such promises.

Daniel's girlfriends

• In season 2, Daniel mentions to Sam that he had a girlfriend before Ali, but when he sits down with Miguel in season 3, he tells Miguel that Ali was his first love. Did he just forget Judy?
  • There's a difference between "liking someone" and "loving someone". Judy may have just been someone Daniel strongly liked, but didn't have romantic feelings for. Ali, on the other hand, was Daniel's first serious girlfriend.

Daniel's inability to find Robby

• When Robby is on the run in early season 3, Daniel (along with Johnny) has no idea where to start looking for him. Shannon, who has seen Robby one time in the last few months, is able to provide a better lead on his whereabouts than either Daniel or Johnny were apparently able to come up with themselves. Johnny is an absent parent, so it makes sense for him to not really know where Robby spends his time and who he spends his time with. But what about Daniel? Between the dealership and karate training, he had spent a lot of time with Robby before he had even moved in with the LaRussos and Daniel seriously has no idea where to find him to the point where he's got nothing after two weeks of searching? He didn't think to check out the delinquents Robby used to be buddies with, who Robby beat up on-camera outside the dealership in Season 1 and Daniel personally fought at the beach in season 2?
  • Given everything else Daniel was dealing with, between Sam's trauma, and the dealership's struggles, he likely wasn't dedicating as much effort to finding Robby as he should've.

Did Miguel sleep over at the LaRussos' in season 3?

• In season 3 episode 8, Miguel is hanging out with Sam at the Miyagi dojo with Sam when Robby shows up. The next morning, they're together back at the dojo. That was the first night when Carmen slept with Johnny. So if Miguel was at home, did he notice his mother was gone all night? Or was he with Sam the whole time?
  • Miguel likely stayed at the dojo with Sam until late. (It's very likely he had a panic attack at the sight of Robby and Samantha had to calm him down) Since Sam has her own car and Miguel doesn't, she then dropped him off at home, and he probably assumed his mom was already asleep. Then Sam came back the next morning to pick him up to go back to Miyagi-Do before Carmen could come back from Johnny's to get ready for work. Daniel is clearly not in the loop about Miguel being back in the picture when he talks to Sam, so he didn't know that Miguel was going to be at the dojo when he caught them together.
  • Sam and Miguel likely spent the night rekindling their romance, or at the very least took Robby's "You two deserve each other" as a sort of condescending "blessing". This would explain how they went from "It's not what you think" (although they were definitely about to kiss if Robby didn't show up) to being very intimate in the span of less than 12ish hours. It's possible she snuck Miguel into her bedroom and he stayed the night with her, but Miguel's change of clothes makes it more likely Sam took him home. (Although the idea that Miguel slept with Sam in her bedroom that night and Daniel was none the wiser seems equally plausible when you consider that Daniel had no clue that Sam and Robby were dating that summer, something that should have been very hard for them to do considering Robby was literally living with them.)
  • They were drinking RC Colas at night, they probably didn't get a single wink of sleep that night.

Could Robby have salvaged his relationship with Sam if he had been honest about the medal from the start?

• Miguel goes to the LaRusso residence to return the medal that Hawk stole from Miyagi-Do. Robby answers the door and they have their interaction. Miguel leaves, Robby shuts the door, and as he's turning around he hears Sam coming downstairs. Instead of scrambling to hide the medal from her sight, what if he immediately gave it to her and told her the whole truth, that Miguel brought it back, he had nothing to do with the dojo being trashed, and that he was sorry it happened? Would he have been able to save the relationship? How much of Sam changing her mind about Miguel in season 2 had to do with the fact that she found out Robby had lied to her?
  • The fact that Robby lied is not what caused Sam to immediately move on Miguel when she found out about the medal. Returning the medal was like the sign Sam was looking for all summer that her Miguel, the one who fought Kyler's crew for her in the cafeteria, was still in there. Her feelings for that boy never went away and she was just with Robby because she thought that old Miguel might be gone. Had Sam found out about the medal from Robby that night, the only change would be the drunken kiss at the party doesn't happen. Miguel and Sam would slowly reconnect as friends first then over time, they'd each break up with their significant other as they realize they want to get back together. Tory probably still would take it very hard, given that we know Tory gets mad at something as simple as Miguel talking to Sam at the roller rink. Robby probably would take it slightly better as his and Sam's relationship was newer (their first kiss was the night that Miguel returned the medal), and he could still be friends with Sam and retain a family in the LaRusso house.
  • If Robby had been honest from the start, that wouldn't do a thing to change Sam's feelings about Miguel. If anything, it would just make her more aware of her true feelings for Miguel earlier and give her time to process it. It's more likely that her relationship with Robby would not progress as far as it did because she would be more hesitant and maybe feel guilty for having pursued anything with Robby in the first place. The show never actually showed that Sam was upset with Robby for lying to her. It's implied that this is because at that point, she realizes her feelings for Miguel and feels more guilt over Robby than betrayal. Robby lying about the medal is more a reflection of his own feelings of insecurity over Miguel...an indicator that his relationship with Sam wasn't solid.
  • Possibly. But it is also reasonable to believe Sam was looking for a reason to believe her version of Miguel was there and not this "Cobra Kai's biggest bully" version. The cracks showed throughout the season on her thoughts on Miguel as is and she still gets the proof she needs. The one saving grace really would come from the kiss not happening at the party. Miguel wouldn't necessarily break up with Tory without some sort of catalyst. One of the most important things to remember is Miguel is a complete dating novice, which is why he always asks Johnny for advice. Most of his moves in the dating world are more reactionary. It's the one place he seems not to really strike first unless Johnny prods him too (asking Sam out was helped by Johnny, the kiss was Sam, Tory made all the opening moves in a very Johnny fashion). What likely would happen therefore is that Sam tells Miguel she wants to give their relationship a second chance. Miguel is conflicted because he doesn't really know how to break the news to Tory that he's going back to Sam, so he goes and tells Johnny and gets some advice. Meanwhile Tory overhears something, either Miguel talking to Johnny, or Miguel talking to Sam, and so she does what Tory does and goes berserker on Sam, starting a quick domino effect leading to her and Miguel breaking up.

Why did Kreese barely try to turn Miguel?

• Kreese's entire plan was to get Johnny (and Robby) on his side. So why did Kreese barely try to get Miguel on his side? In Season 2, Kreese clearly knows that Miguel is Johnny's star pupil and likely even knows he's basically Johnny's adopted son at that point. Yet Kreese barely does anything to try to convince Miguel that his teachings are correct. He also doesn't even bother trying to talk to Miguel in Season 3 and convince him that Johnny failed him or anything. For someone whose sole goal is to get Johnny on his side it seems weird that Kreese left Miguel alone. If Kreese got Miguel on his side he would have had Johnny on his side too, and he was clearly starting to succeed given the way Miguel acted at Coyote Creek.
  • Kreese wrote off Miguel practically the very moment he met him as a potential liability. While he might've liked for Johnny to be at his side, it was never necessary in order for Kreese's plans to succeed. Once Miguel proves himself loyal to Johnny by quite literally putting himself in between Kreese and Johnny, he basically falls into the same category as Johnny in Kreese's mind: "Too Unpredictable". The only difference is that Kreese believes Johnny and Robby might be worth the risk of trying to scoop up anyway, but there's nothing Miguel has that Kreese feels like he needs. Johnny, at the time, had the dojo and the loyalty of the students. Miguel was a good fighter and the current champion, but he can create good fighters and champions on his own.
    As for not trying to snare Miguel in season 3, well, two things: 1) Miguel showed mercy in the school fight, and that means he doesn't fit Kreese's definition of "Cobra Kai material". It's actually safe to argue that Kreese may have considered the school fight to be Miguel's "audition" for his version of Cobra Kai. And 2) Kreese always actively removes the weak. That's kind of his thing. If he turned on Johnny in 1984 for coming in second to Daniel in the tournament, the paralyzed kid who got paralyzed because he showed mercy is obviously not one he is going to be chasing after.
  • Another big factor is that Miguel was on to Kreese early on. He questioned Kreese's war stories for factual inaccuracies. And he didn't just question Kreese, he also went to Johnny with his concerns. He also disagreed with Kreese on his "No Mercy" tactics during class in front of all the students. Miguel has a strong moral compass and Kreese knew it. Kreese also always wanted Robby, and must have had some idea that Miguel was in the way of Johnny reconciling with Robby. And since Johnny had been training Miguel personally for nine months before Kreese came back into the picture, there's too strong a connection between them for Kreese to step in the way of, going by Kreese's line "You honor Sensei Lawrence with your allegiance."
  • Adding to both entries above, simple racism may be a factor. Kreese has demonstrated himself to be a Politically Incorrect Villain and referred to Miguel as "that Mexican" when speaking privately with Johnny.
    • While this is possible, that would then bring up the question as to why he actively recruited Kyler. If you recall from the movies Kreese was very racist towards Asians (possibly due to his experiences in Vietnam), calling Miyagi a "slope" on multiple occasions. So if racism is a factor for why he didn't want Miguel then why did he go out of his way to recruit Kyler? Who's part of a race that Kreese has shown far more animosity towards than Miguel's.
    • He probably made an exception for Kyler because Kyler is a wrestler (and who knows if Kreese is aware of the cafeteria fight Kyler's crew had with Miguel). Plus he's a sadistic sociopathic bully, just like Kreese.
  • Miguel has far too strong a mind for Kreese's liking; Robby, on the other hand, is still easily swayed.
  • Miguel, like Bobby Brown, never had that true edge/ruthlessness of a true Cobra fighter. Any time he showed a glimpse of something resembling what Kreese would've liked, it came from:
    • 1) Being drunk that one time at the canyon party, which was only because the alcohol messed with him.
    • 2) The tournament. He really only fought with that intensity because he was angry from events he thought were true. He was never going to fight like he did, had he and Sam been on good terms then.
    • 3) It took Tory's sob story to get him to act like a Cobra for only like 5 minutes.

When did Robby change his mind about Sam?

• When Robby first hears about Sam and Miguel's kiss just before the school fight, he does not immediately conclude that Sam cheated on him and instead assumes that Miguel must have taken advantage of her. During the fight Miguel retorts that no, the kiss actually happened because Sam loves him and not Robby. In season 3, Robby seems to have changed his opinion about the kiss as when he runs into Tory at the probation office, he tells Tory that "Sam just made a mistake". Later on in that same episode, when he sees Sam and Miguel together at the dojo, he says, "I should've known". So when did he truly change his opinion about the kiss? Or, did he always know the truth deep down and was just in denial until seeing Sam and Miguel together in season 3?
  • He didn't want to believe it when he heard it and he seemed to hold out hope for most of S3. Remember, he still doesn't know that she already knew from Aisha about Miguel returning the medal before he told her about that. That is, he doesn't know why she kissed Miguel. Seeing them together at Miyagi-Do, with Tory's words still fresh on his mind, it all hits him at once:
    1. That Sam really did cheat on him and betray him. Tory's words from earlier were true.
    2. "She loves me, not you". Miguel and Sam are playfully sparring and making lovey-dovey faces at one another at Miyagi-Do, a place where Robby fell in love with Sam and where they used to playfully spar.
    3. Robby had intervened and tried to protect Sam in the school fight for no reason at all—-she really had kissed Miguel.
    4. Sam had rejected Robby's love for her. So doubt was always there, but confirmation came at that scene.
  • When Robby first heard about the kiss, he was hurt. But at the same time, he didn't have much time to process the information, and knew Sam was really out of it at the party. He always sort of saw Sam as the perfect beautiful girl who was kind to him, and she never hurt him in any other way during their relationship until the weekend before school. At the party, when Sam was drunk, he was worried for Sam and tried to cut her off, saying that she wasn't acting like herself, because it was the first time Sam wasn't friendly and considerate towards him.
    Also, notice how she is significantly more tolerant and affectionate towards Miguel after learning about how he returned the medal, because her feelings for him ran deep. They always did, but she thought the old sweet and nerdy Miguel was gone, so she tried to hide/remove them. After drunkenly realizing he is still there, she didn't even bother hiding those feelings anymore.
    Sam liked Robby, while Robby might've even fallen for her. She was only the second person for him to completely open up to, and he always defended her and enjoyed being around her. It can be hard to admit that someone you loved/cared for did something so wrong, but deep down he probably knew that Sam cheated. He realized she cheated after he properly thought about it after the school fight, but he was still willing to forgive her. That was of course, before he found out she was back together with Miguel, someone he tried so hard for her to avoid.
  • Sam liked Robby, but Robby loved Sam, and is also pretty clingy. Once he latches onto someone, he really doesn't want to let go and it makes sense considering his upbringing. He's grown up desperately craving stability and constant figures in his life. It's the reason he was so quick to forgive Daniel in the season one finale, and probably why he was so willing to forgive and defend Sam even if deep down he truly believed that she cheated on him...at least, until he sees her with Miguel. At which point, Robby decides right then and there that she's "against him" and "choosing Miguel over him", just like his dad, and he's hurt. And Robby's instinctive reaction to hurt feelings is to get angry, so he immediately lashes out at Sam. It sharply contrasts him with how Tory handles the season 2 love square, because although Tory liked Miguel, her feelings for him didn't run as deep as Robby's feelings for Sam were. Robby might've been insecure about Miguel, but there's no point in season 2 where Robby comes off like he only wanted to be with Sam solely (or even partly) because he just wanted to get a rise out of Miguel. His feelings for her and intentions while dating her were completely genuine, something that can't be said about Tory.
  • Robby always knew. He gave Sam a hurt look when Tory said they kissed, but it was a slow build to him completely writing her off for it. He didn't have much time to process the information during the school fight, but he does know he doesn't like Miguel because of baggage from the tournament, so he goes with that easy "its Miguel's fault" reaction. Afterward he has a lot of time to think by himself and he started to realize the truth.
    Even if he knew to some degree that Sam was also at fault, he probably still felt like she was the only person he had left after the perceived betrayals of Daniel and Johnny, which is why he defends her to Tory. He could see she had been trying to contact him via email (which he might have interpreted as her wanting to still be involved with him romantically) and saw her defend him in the news interview as "an accident" when he injured Miguel. (Sam does seem a little unsure about whether or not Robby injuring Miguel was truly an accident during the news interview. Robby was probably a little hurt by that, but then again it's possible that he was so desperate to believe that she really wanted to be with him and not Miguel that maybe he didn't even really hear anything beyond "It was an accident") He wanted to believe the kiss was a dumb mistake and that she really wanted him, not Miguel. He sought her out most likely hoping to resolve the issue, but when he sees her with Miguel, he thinks he doesn't even have her anymore. She's now officially "against him" and "choosing Miguel" so he no longer has any qualms about assigning the blame for the kiss or being angry at her for it.
• The biggest thing to consider is that both Sam and Robby came to wrong conclusions in this matter, but they were also the logical conclusions to come to based on the evidence each had.
  • Sam:
    • From Sam's perspective, every attempt to communicate with Robby was shot down. Not just with her but with her parents as well. First when Daniel turns Robby in, he says that he'll visit and Robby tells him not even to bother. When Daniel tries calling Robby, Robby immediately hangs up on him, not even wanting to speak to him. Sam sends a handful of emails to Robby, trying to open up communications with him. She doesn't want to email him once or call him once or visit him once just to break up. She wants to open up a conversation first before dumping that news on him. Robby though, doesn't respond to any of her emails nor her parents, to which Sam has absolutely no way of knowing why he didn't do this. Finally, when Robby gets out of juvie, Daniel is there to offer him the opportunity to go back with him. Robby tells Daniel to get lost. And it's easy to imagine that Daniel relayed the info to Sam that Robby didn't even want Daniel in his life anymore. Robby signaled that he wanted to cut off the entire LaRusso family. Again we as an audience know this isn't true but Sam does not.
    • Sam has been someone who has both ghosted someone and also couldn’t contact someone. In season 2, she ghosted Miguel and in season 1 she couldn’t contact him because she'd been grounded. Robby's now in that position, despite the circumstances being slightly different. He is unable to contact Sam, and to her it appears that she is being ghosted. When Miguel felt this way at the party, he didn’t just move on and find another person to make out with, he got angry, but he waited for Sam to explain, which he didn’t believe thus being a separate issue, or at least clear the air before breaking up or moving on.
  • Robby:
    • Robby asks Sam, "Did you two get together the second I was gone or wait a week to make it look good?" As an audience we know neither of those are true. Sam and Miguel had only re-upped their relationship status back to romance that very night, but Robby has no way of knowing that.
    • Robby saw when he checked his emails in jail that he'd been getting emails from Sam and from her parents fairly consistently. She sent an email about once a week seeing if he would respond. Then one day, he sees her on the news organizing a car wash to raise money for Miguel's surgery. In that interview she says "we love you, Miguel". While Sam obviously meant that as a friend, there was also some underlying romantic tones in the way she says that (especially when one remembers that earlier, Sam was showing mixed signals when she visited Miguel in the hospital. Despite trying to act only interested in being friends with him, she gave him a card that was meant to invoke memories of their first date) which Robby likely picked up on and which made him think the whole thing was some Grand Romantic Gesture to show her love for Miguel. Couple that with the fact that the car wash fundraiser happens around the same time Sam stops sending emails to Robby. This is just a coincidence, but to Robby, it probably looks like anything but one.
    • Then, upon getting out of juvie, he sees Sam and Miguel sparring intimately in the backyard of Miyagi-Do, lovesick grins on their faces. It's unclear if Robby was looking for Sam or if he just went to Miyagi-Do looking for a place to crash since he had nowhere to go and thought it would be empty. Whatever the case, seeing them together there in his mind confirmed what he thought to be true: namely, that Sam had gotten back together with Miguel in October, around the time of the fundraiser and when she'd stopped emailing him. He thought they got back together within a few weeks of him going to juvie instead of months after. When only the audience knows that that night was the first time Miguel and Sam really got back together romantically.
    • Robby's accusation line is also somewhat rhetorical. Because Sam did cheat on him with Miguel at Moon's party just as much as Miguel was cheating on Tory with Sam, and that is why the school fight happened. Robby intervened to protect Sam, and got attacked by Miguel for it. From Robby's perspective, he still doesn't know why Miguel attacked him. After all, didn't Miguel want to protect Sam too? Tackling Robby freed Tory, which is the opposite of protecting Sam. Yeah, it doesn't change the outcome, but Robby never intended to fight with Miguel that day, but only to defend Sam. Then Robby comes to Miyagi-Do for the first time in months after he's served his time, and Sam and Miguel are already back in each other's arms. To Robby, protecting Sam was All for Nothing.
    • For such a big rivalry, Miguel and Robby almost never interact (though this changes after Robby returns to Miyagi-Do in season 5). Every other rivalry, it seems like there's more interaction going on (Hawk and Demetri, Sam and Tory, etc.). Because of this, Robby's perception of Miguel is quite different from that of the audience who knows the whole picture. And Robby encountered Miguel in the worst of circumstances. He just witnessed Sam being very intimate with Miguel, Miguel who he pretty much hates. The audience understand that Miguel is a good kid but to Robby, he definitely is not. Miguel played dirty when he pulled on Robby's arm in the tournament. He gets all the love from Robby's actual father (and note that Johnny's relationship with Robby was actually worse before Miguel came into the picture). Miguel's friends were the ones that trashed Miyagi-Do. And now he's seeing Miguel steal his girlfriend, and moreover, Sam is acting like she doesn't regret having cheated on him at the party. He's extremely hurt at the time, especially considering the conversation he had with Tory earlier in the episode.

Daniel not caring about Miguel

• At the start of season 3, Daniel seems less upset about Miguel being in a coma, and more upset that Robby is going to get in trouble for hurting him. Not saying he can't or shouldn't care about Robby and the potential consequences of his actions, but couldn't he also spare a single fuck for the kid that his karate student put in a coma? I mean, he's clearly pretty financially well-off and yet Samantha has to organize a fundraiser in order to give money towards Miguel's surgery? Even Amanda seems to care more about Miguel (even though it's admittedly because what happened to him is harming her business). Does it seem out of character for Daniel maybe?
  I should clarify, I'm not saying Daniel should've cared more about Miguel's situation than Robby's, or even as much as he cares about Robby's situation, but it just seems like he hardly cares at all. Even if Sam badmouthed Miguel to her dad after their break-up, when Daniel sees Sam in the hospital she cries and tells him how worried she is about Robby but also Miguel. Shouldn't that have changed his tune at all? If his teenage daughter can put her issues with Miguel on the backburner while his life is in danger, then is it really a good look for Daniel to still be holding a grudge? Especially when Daniel's grievances with him at the time essentially boil down to Miguel being in Cobra Kai, being a previous boyfriend of his daughter, and fighting dirty in a karate tournament, all of which seem like kind of trivial things (except maybe the past Miguel / Sam relationship if he knows that they split on bad terms) when the kid is severely injured and might never wake up from his coma.
  • Of course Daniel cares more about Robby’s wellbeing than Miguel’s. At this point in the story, he hasn’t had a single interaction with Miguel, and doesn’t know much about him that isn't filtered through the lens of Miguel being Johnny's student or whatever Sam has told him. And considering the circumstances under which Sam broke up with Miguel, she probably didn’t speak highly of him. Furthermore, Daniel has a father-son relationship with Robby and cares about him deeply. He feels responsible for Robby and even tells Amanda on more than one occasion that “he’s got no one."
  • Daniel is a bit standoffish with Miguel because he thinks Miguel will be a bad influence on his daughter. It is natural for a father to be protective over who his daughter is dating. We know Daniel is still a bit nervous about Sam dating because of what happened with Kyler and her first breakup with Miguel, as seen by his reaction when he walked in on Sam making out with Miguel. Daniel would be a bit of a crap dad if he was just letting any random kid date Sam without finding out more about this kid first. That's not to say he doesn't care about Miguel, because he did ask Amanda to text him with updates on Miguel while he was out with Johnny looking for Robby.
  • Daniel’s business is supposedly struggling because of what happened, to the point where Tom Cole wants to buy him out. He has very few customers. This is mentioned (and shown) several times. But even that reason is a bit weak, because it's not like business at the dealership had been on a steady decline for a long while, or "one day they were making plenty of money and then the next they weren't." The LaRussos didn't go completely broke the day that their business stopped making money. However, it's also odd that Sam had to hold a fundraiser in order to raise money towards Miguel's surgery when her parents most likely could have made a donation if they wanted to even if their business wasn't doing well. And Daniel has the money to travel to Tokyo...and then Okinawa on a whim while he's there, and that's when his business was still struggling (traveling to Tokyo was business-related but the trip to Okinawa was not).
  • It should be noted that the LaRussos did send Miguel a very expensive gift basket while he was in the hospital. Sam's reason for organizing the fundraiser was because 1) out of a sense of guilt, she wanted to send money that came from her and not from her parents' accounts, and 2) after Hawk's snide remark to her when they crossed paths in Miguel's hospital room, Sam realized that she actually did not do enough for Miguel. It's likely Hawk's comment that inspired her to organize the car wash fundraiser, and motivated her to show support for Miguel later in Season 3.

Miguel's fast recovery

• While the exact time frame isn't clear, in episodes 7 and 8 of season 3, when Miguel's training, he can not even get his leg up to do a simple crescent kick. In the house fight, just days later, Miguel clearly can not use his legs for 99% of the fight then out of nowhere he has an internal monologue and all of a sudden he has full control and is back to 100% and able to defeat Kyler? That doesn't make any sense to me. It's like he had a mental block holding him back not a physical one, yet nothing about his recovery up to that point insinuated that the reason he couldn't do karate was mental. Compare this to Sam, who definitely had a mental block.^note We see her having flashbacks to the fight on her first day back at school, and has PTSD triggered by hearing Tory's voice later in the season. It is clear that Sam's issue was a mental block of being afraid of Tory. Nothing like this is ever shown for Miguel. He doesn't have any flashbacks of the fall. He had no issue returning to school and he didn't seem to have much of an issue seeing Robby again.
  • It's kind of implied that the reason Miguel struggling with re-learning how to stand was a mental block. He's basically only able to do it once he stops thinking so hard about it. Just like at the concert where he first realizes he's able to move his foot again. That seems to happen right at the exact moment when he stops thinking about it, too. Miguel's trauma might not manifest in the same ways as Sam's, so this doesn't necessarily mean he didn't have trauma. More likely, he had a mental block that wasn't related to trauma, but more about feeling sorry for himself. The sort of attitude he's exhibiting when Johnny is discouraging him from fighting in the tournament could have been what was getting in his way and not his trauma. This attitude most likely comes and goes during his recovery time.
    1. In the hospital, he's feeling down until Johnny comes and motivates him.
    2. When he gets discharged, he's back to feeling down until he realizes he can move his foot again.
    3. After the concert, he starts feeling down again when he doesn't see further progress right away, but once he realizes he's able to stand again he's back on the upswing.
    4. Johnny restricting him from competing in the next All Valley is his next upset, but he seems to get over that one himself just in time to save the All Valley tournament.
    5. He's feeling good again while sparring with Sam, until he sees Robby, but it seems like his talk with Daniel and plans to unite the Eagle Fang and Miyagi-Do dojos gives him some much-needed motivation.
    6. When the Cobra Kai students crash their "party", Miguel is clearly immediately thrown when he sees Kyler and has flashbacks to when Kyler & co. bullied him. He again has to motivate himself to get moving.

Did Miguel have a falling out with Demetri or not?

Early in season 2, Demetri is seen spending time with a friend group that includes Miguel, but Miguel and Demetri have quite a large gap between their one-on-one interactions. Their last direct conversation with each other is at the tournament in 1x10 and then they literally don't speak to one another onscreen again until 3x07. They don't have some huge falling out during their conversation in 1x10. Demetri expresses interest in trying out Cobra Kai again, Miguel asks if he's seen Sam around, and Demetri tells him that Sam had already left the tournament. However, the next time they have a direct conversation over one and a half seasons later, they act like they're still good friends who never fell out of contact at all. It just seems odd considering that in season 2:

1. Miguel essentially replaces Demetri as Hawk's best friend (and honestly, this seems to start happening even before Demetri and Hawk even have their falling out).
2. Demetri decides to join a rival dojo where he befriends Miguel's rival (Robby) and ex-girlfriend (Sam).
3. Miguel has no onscreen reaction whatsoever to Kreese punching Demetri, Demetri's bad Yelp review of Cobra Kai, or the mall fight where Hawk & co. try to jump Demetri. It's already strange that there isn't much of an onscreen reaction to the mall fight from anyone except for Moon and Robby, but the fact that we get literally nothing from Miguel about any of these events is especially strange if we're meant to believe that Demetri and Miguel are still friends when these things occur, especially considering Miguel's reaction to Miyagi-Do being trashed soon after.
4. When Demetri is talking to Daniel shortly after joining Miyagi-Do he says something along the lines of "All my friends joined Cobra Kai and turned into alpha jerks". He seems to be talking about Hawk and Miguel here (if he was only talking about Hawk, he probably would've just "my best friend" like he does in this same conversation when referring to Hawk). This implies that he thinks Miguel has turned into a jerk, but why does he think that? And if he indeed thinks that Miguel has become a jerk, then how come the next time they talk Demetri is perfectly friendly with him? Miguel hasn't directly done anything to Demetri to prove or disprove the alpha jerk claim, so it just kinda comes out of nowhere.
5. The Miyagi-Do dojo where Demetri trains is trashed by Cobra Kai, the dojo where Miguel trains.

• As far as we're shown, no, they never had a falling out, but both started hanging out more with members of their own dojos and thus didn't see each other as often as they used to. It's worth remembering that Season 2 takes place over the course of a single summer, so it's a pretty short space of time where Miguel and Demetri aren't hanging out all the time, and Miguel got injured on the first day of school, so we didn't get to see how they would have reacted to now being on opposite sides of the dojo rivalry.
  • I get that they both had other things going on in season 2, but it's strange that this is never really addressed, especially when there are such easy fixes for it. Want to show that Miguel and Demetri are no longer friends? Just throw in a five second scene where Demetri tries to call Miguel after Kreese punches him, but have Miguel ignore the call and show Demetri being visibly upset about it. Want to show that Miguel and Demetri are still friends? Then, when Hawk is confessing to trashing Miyagi-Do at Coyote Creek, have him mention to Miguel that he only did it after he tried to "make Demetri pay for betraying Cobra Kai" or something like that, and just have Miguel condemn it along with his condemning of trashing Miyagi-Do. Or, when Daniel and his students discover that Miyagi-Do has been trashed, have Demetri comment, "This doesn't look like Miguel's doing. I know him, he'd never stoop so low as to do something like this," or something like that. Going places together as part of a group with several other people (like at the start of season 2) and Demetri sending Miguel a get-well gift while he was in the hospital (at the start of season 3) aren't really strong enough indicators that the two of them are still friends. Their friendship was really prominent in season 1 so it just seems strange that even though they have no falling out, they have no direct interaction at all in season 2 and for more than half of season 3.
  • It's also entirely possible that Sam filled Demetri in off-screen during the two weeks they were suspended after the school brawl about Miguel having returned the Medal of Honor, which would've been enough to convince Demetri that Miguel hadn't gone off the rails like Hawk had and would've in turn meant that Miguel would still at least be friendly enough with Demetri to accept a gift from him.
  • It’s kind of implied that maybe Miguel was kept out of the loop about the Hawk-Demetri conflict, simply because every time the two of them collided, Miguel wasn’t around or was preoccupied with something else (he was with Tory when the mall fight happened; at Moon's party, Miguel was outside watching the drinking competition between Tory and Sam when Hawk dumped the drink on Demetri’s head, and then he was busy cheating on Tory with Sam while Demetri was roasting Hawk; Miguel was fighting Robby during the school fight while Hawk was chasing Demetri; and he was recovering from his school brawl injuries when Hawk broke Demetri’s arm in the arcade fight). Miguel not knowing about the arcade fight until he returns to school is believable since he probably wasn't keeping up with everyone's happenings while he was busy recovering, but the fact that Miguel seems to have no idea what's going on with Demetri and Hawk throughout season 2 is so glaring that it almost feels like a plot hole. Realistically, Miguel ought to have at the very least heard about some of the season 2 incidents, if not from Demetri then from Hawk. Hawk and Miguel are shown to be close friends in season 2 so it's weird that Miguel somehow has no idea about this months-long rivalry that his close friend is participating in where the person he's antagonizing is someone else that Miguel also knows personally.

Yasmine and Sam friends again?

• So like did Moon, Yasmine, and Sam all just become friends again off screen? Like we know Sam and Moon reconciled in Season 2, but when did Yasmine get back into their friend group? We saw Moon talk to Yasmine early in Season 3 warning her not to get on the bad side of the karatekas. Then we also see Yasmine sitting with Moon, Sam and Demetri at lunch in the cafeteria in the scene where Hawk breaks Demetri's project. Then in episode 8, when Sam and Miguel catch Yasmine making out with Demetri, Sam's not annoyed or anything, but overtly friendly it seems.
  • Moon's objective since season 2 has been for everyone to just get along so it's not really surprising that she's made up with Yasmine. As for Sam, she's supposed to be practicing forgiveness according to Miyagi-Do teachings, so it makes sense that she's made up with her, too. And after the school fight, Sam, Moon and Yasmine might've realized that their issues with each other are kinda insignificant in comparison to two karate schools, and just not worth the trouble of more in-school rivalries.
  • Perhaps Yasmine figured "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." That's why Sam's friend group at school appears to be made of Yasmine, Moon, Demetri, and some other extra girls that are in the shot in the scene in episode 4, with Miguel added on after he comes back in episode 8.
  • It helps that Yasmine Took a Level in Kindness (somewhat) after getting a taste of her own medicine.

Where would Aisha have gone if she was in season 3?

• Obviously, we'll never know for certain since Aisha's parents withdrew her and transferred her to a private school, but what would she have done if she was in season 3?
  • Going by how her character was written, she probably would've gone to Miyagi-Do in the aftermath of the fight. Aisha would never have followed Kreese or aligned with other kids who hurt Sam. That or she would've been recruited by Johnny into Eagle Fang.
  • Aisha wouldn't have been as resistant to Kreese's philosophy as Miguel, and Hawk would have initially deferred to her. She and Tory would have gotten closer but she would have been disappointed that Tory didn't stand up either taking responsibility for what happened to Sam or Miguel (she would be able to tolerate one or the other but not both) and it would break them down the line. Once animal cruelty got involved, well, she would have led a revolt about it (with her parents probably running to the media to give Kreese bad publicity). Whether she would have gone to Johnny or Daniel is unclear. Johnny would have sought her out, of course, and so would have Sam.
  • I believe Aisha would at first have sided with Kreese and Cobra Kai due to feeling vengeful over Miguel's injury, but she would have been the one voice of reason when Hawk was about to break Demetri's arm (but ultimately being drowned out by all of her other teammates) and disillusioned after Hawk actually ends up breaking Demetri's arm. Then after that she leaves Cobra Kai and ends up being recruited by Miguel and Johnny and helps start Eagle Fang with them.

So, not gonna follow Hawk in defecting?

• Many background Cobra Kai students, such as Mikey, Rickenberger, Dieter, and others, have been shown to be fiercely loyal to Hawk all along. So were none of them going to follow him in defecting from Cobra Kai? I understand why there might be some initial frustration over Hawk just blind-siding them like that and turning on them out of the blue, but after the dust settled wouldn't they think things through and follow him loyally like they had been? These guys were there for all of Johnny's run at Cobra Kai and were as present when Johnny chewed them out and gave them the pep talk at school in Episode 7 of S3. Many of them (Mikey and Dieter especially) initially joined after being inspired by Miguel's defeat of Kyler in the cafeteria, which is the exact same case for Hawk, so wouldn't they have also eventually seen the lunacy (like Hawk did) in turning on Johnny and Miguel and siding with Kyler? After Hawk rightly reasoned in favor of defecting because of this, wouldn't these guys, especially the ones who joined at the same time as him (Season 1 Episode 6 and 7) and for the same reason as him (being inspired by watching Miguel beat up Kyler in the cafeteria) realize that Hawk's reasoning was sound and follow him in defecting to Johnny? In addition, Mikey and Rickenberger both got their asses beat by Robby TWICE (at the mall and during the school fight) and are just completely okay with accepting Robby as a classmate in Cobra Kai without any hesitation? This addition makes their lack of following Hawk in switching sides even more confusing. I would also like to note that Hawk had up to this point been the student that had fallen the DEEPEST into Kreese's teachings out of all of Kreese's students (with maybe a possible exception of Tory), so wouldn't even HIM realizing Kreese was wrong and turning things around cause these other guys, who are presumably less deep into Kreese's brainwashing than Hawk was, to also do the same, realize they were on the wrong side, and turn? This aspect once again makes their lack of switching sides with Hawk yet more confusing.
  • This is discussed in the Alternate Character Interpretation section. A Fridge Brilliance entry also suggests the reason Mikey and Rickenberger quit in season 4 was due to having to work with Robby.

How was Kreese able to visit Robby in juvie?

• California's guidelines for juvie visitation state that only family are initially allowed to visit the inmate and other family members can be authorized after proper clearances are made. Kreese is not a family member of Robby at all, so how was he able to just waltz into juvie and be allowed access to visit Robby?
  • Los Angeles County allows only parents, grandparents, and legal guardians during visiting hours. There are other people who have visitation privileges, which are called "Special Visits". These would include people like clergymen (like Bobby), lawyers, and people like Kreese. Any of those "Special Visits" only need to be approved by the probation officer.
  • Okay, then how did Kreese manage to get a "Special Visit" approved by Robby's probation officer? Kreese was head of the dojo that the kid Robby was incarcerated for injuring was affiliated with (at the time, there was no Eagle Fang yet so Miguel still held the status as Cobra Kai's star student), doesn't seem like something the probation officer would just gloss over. I mean with that knowledge it'd be completely reasonable for the probation officer to assume that Kreese was there to harm Robby for what he did to Miguel.
    • How Kreese managed to visit Robby is still a mystery, but it probably has something to do with him being a karate mentor. Given what kind of person Kreese is, it's easy to imagine that he lied/used a bit of manipulation to get his name put on the visitor list.

No backlash against Cobra Kai for the school fight?

• I get why the LaRussos faced backlash for the school fight, as Daniel was the one who trained Robby and Robby put a kid in the hospital. But how come Cobra Kai wasn't getting as much heat as the LaRussos? Especially since it was a Cobra Kai student (Tory) who started the fight by going after Sam, and it was another Cobra Kai student (Hawk) was the one who agitated the girls' fight into a full-scale school riot by pushing Sam back at Tory when Sam tried to flee.
  • Based on that one woman's remark at the PTA meeting, public opinion might have been that Tory was "justified" in starting the fight because Sam was allegedly moving in on Tory's boyfriend. And then, of course, the reason that Miyagi-Do got more public backlash, besides what Robby did to Miguel, is because Daniel is just better known. Johnny and Kreese are practically just anonymous karate teachers, but Daniel's face and name are on billboards, commercials and car dealerships all over the Valley. If he's involved, then his name is going to be included in the news story because it's going to bring in clicks. From there, making Daniel in particular look bad would have been easy considering the outcome of the school fight. And the fact that Cobra Kai technically started the fight was kind of overshadowed by the fact that a Miyagi-Do student nearly killed a Cobra Kai student.

What if Sam hadn't had her panic attack during the arcade fight?

• Obviously panic attacks are unpredictable and can't be anticipated, but would the arcade fight have ended if Sam didn't have a panic attack at the sound of Tory's voice?
  • Tory was angry and pretty much out for blood. If she couldn’t inflict the pain she wanted to at the school fight, then she 100% would have done it in the arcade fight if Sam hadn’t had a panic attack and hid. Look at how their fight in the finale goes. When Sam has her panic attack and runs, when Tory corners her and Sam can’t defend herself, Tory says, “I guess I’ll have to make my own fun” as she grabs the nunchucks off the wall. It's likely Sam would've fought hard against Tory, but found herself on the losing end of a vicious beatdown in the arcade if Tory cornered her. There's the possibility that Tory wanted to kill her is still lingering, or maybe she would've gotten Sam into a submission hold and made her watch Hawk break Demetri's arm.
  • Alternately, it would've played out like this: Tory corners Sam, they fight, but Tory has the upper hand for most of the fight, until one of the Miyagi-Dos recovers and comes to Sam's aid, enabling her to get the upper hand and do a finishing move on Tory.
  • Even if Sam hadn't panicked, Tory came with reinforcements, and they probably were already there when the fight started. (Since the Cobras were a bit too busy fighting the Miyagi-Dos to have been texting for backup, so it's more likely that a few Cobra Kai students were sent in to provoke Miyagi-Do into a fight, and once they noticed that a fight had indeed started, Tory and the others joined in) Sam would've been outnumbered by the other Cobras, but probably would've managed to beat them with help from the other Miyagi-Dos. Of course, it's likely that this fight with Tory would've been one-on-one, seeing as Tory immediately calls out for Sam while her Cobra Kai peers are fighting with the Miyagi-Do students, which says the only reason she showed up was because she wanted a rematch.
  • If Sam didn't have her panic attack, the difference would have been that she and Tory would have engaged in a fight. But what happens next depends on what the two Cobras who arrive with Tory do. If they spread out and start helping the others, Miyagi-Do might not have as devastating a loss as in canon with Hawk breaking Demetri's arm while the other Cobras stand around encouraging him to do so. If those two Cobras back Tory and gang up on Sam, the fight probably ends in a worse outcome for Sam, with Tory and her goons beating her unconscious and leaving her the way Johnny found Miguel in the locker room at the school dance after Kyler and his goons beat him up.
  • Had Miyagi-Do won the arcade fight, Sam's PTSD arc would probably not have become such a big focus, and Amanda probably wouldn't have realized how big of a threat Kreese is. Sam was having the upper hand in the fight, but totally shut down when Tory showed up and allowed Cobra Kai to get the upper hand. What would happen next is unclear. Given how Hawk trashed Miyagi-Do after he lost the mall fight in season 2, Cobra Kai would've likely retaliated by doing something like break into one of Daniel's dealerships and vandalize it, attacking a Miyagi-Do at some other random location and break their legs there, etc. Tory might decide to go after Amanda or Anthony and brutally assault one of them as a way of hurting Sam. Or, just as likely, Kreese goes to the police and claims that his students were assaulted by a group of delinquents and show the bruises as proof, getting Miyagi-Do in even more hot water given some of the stuff that happened at the school (which would mean the LaRussos have to hire lawyers for their students).
    • It's unlikely Kreese would go to the police if Miyagi-Do won the arcade fight. The police would end up questioning the Miyagi-Do students, who would point out that the Cobra Kais were causing trouble, harassing Chris at work and stealing stuffed animals from the prize stand. If Hawk and his buddies were caught on camera, that would be damning evidence. Meaning maybe some of the Miyagi-Dos might get slapped with criminal charges, but so would all of the Cobra Kai. Hawk and Mitch would probably be charged with multiple counts of harassment, robbery, assault and battery, and Tory would be sent to prison for assault, and violating her parole. And the hostilities of the dojos pausing due to everyone spending the next few months going in and out of courtrooms.
  • The interesting thing about the arcade fight is that when you look more closely at it, it was relatively unimpactful to the rest of season 3 (compared to the midseason fights of seasons 1 and 2). Like, other than Sam's PTSD arc, you wouldn't miss anything by cutting out the arcade fight. Tory wouldn't change, Hawk wouldn't change, Miguel would still side with Johnny and get back together with Sam, and Demetri would still hook up with Yasmine. Kreese would still have ways to paint his students as the "victims"; at the town hall meeting to save the All-Valley he would've been able to rely on how the student who put Miguel in a coma was a Miyagi-Do.

Tory's concern with probation seems selective

• The cops are so useless that I don't blame Miyagi-Do/Eagle Fang for not calling them when Cobra Kai attacked and invaded the LaRusso home, but I have to wonder why Tory was only concerned with breaking her probation when she held back against attacking her creepy landlord who was sexually harassing her, but not when she broke into LaRussos' home and mercilessly attacked Sam?
  • To put it simply, Kreese is one helluva drug.

Mikey and Dieter working together with Kyler

• Mikey and Dieter were both inspired to join Cobra Kai initially by watching Miguel beat up Kyler in the cafeteria. So why was Dieter bullying Demetri alongside Kyler without any hesitation and why was Mikey attacking Miguel alongside Kyler during the house fight without any hesitation? Hawk realized the lunacy of this and defected as a result, so why didn't Mikey and Dieter naturally come to a similar conclusion and defect alongside Hawk?
  • This is discussed in the Alternate Character Interpretation section.

How can Tory afford everything?

• The way we found out about Tory being poor was that she told Miguel in season 2 that her mom would sneak leftovers from the restaurant she worked at so they could eat, so she did that because she couldn’t afford groceries. If Tory's mom had to do that, and now that she is bedbound, what does Tory eat? She can’t make ends meet, so I seriously wonder how she hadn’t starved during season 2, only having one job, and on top of that paying for karate lessons, I’m surprised she didn’t pass out from malnourishment, on top of that she has to feed her brother and her mom too, so she has to buy groceries for all of them and maybe pay bills (we don’t know if that was included in her rent or not), and she was five months behind on rent, so if Kreese hadn’t threatened the landlord when he did, she was facing eviction. And the cherry on top is, how did she keep her job at the roller rink? She was on probation, and she was almost put in juvie, shouldn’t they have fired her? I’m just incredibly curious on how she managed all of this.
  • In Tory's conversation with Miguel at the sushi restaurant, she seems to imply that her mom had only recently fallen ill enough to require Tory to take on a second job, so perhaps before then (as in, during season 2), her mom was capable of supporting Tory and her brother with the help that came from Tory working at the roller rink. This would explain how, even though her mom was sick before the school fight, Tory had time to take karate lessons, attend Moon's party, and premeditate a public assault on Sam at school. Of course this is subjective, since even then, in episode 8 she couldn't even make time with Miguel for a date and they had to arrange one while she was working.
  • Season 2 shows that Tory has no qualms about stealing stuff. She could easily be swiping food from the restaurant or roller rink, or stealing things offscreen and flipping them for cash to pay the bills.
  • Tory's waitressing job in season 3 was said to be a second job, so maybe her probation officer somehow arranged for her to keep her roller rink job.
  • Season 4 confirmed Tory's mother gets disability checks, which Tory primarily uses to take care of her mother and brother; it was implied in season 3 most of the income from her jobs went towards rent.

What was the final straw for the season 2 romantic pairings?

• Except when Moon dumped Hawk for being a bully, the show tends to be kind of vague about what is considered to be a break-up. So what were the official break-up moments for Sam & Robby? Miguel & Tory?
  • Both couples were over by the end of the school fight. No words needed to be said, but it was clear that the relationships were forever changed in a way that they couldn't come back from after the school fight. Some may argue that the official breakup happened when the former couples talked in season 3, but let's be honest, those couples were already broken up and it was just their first encounter since. Things were discussed, but not in a way where there was any expectation that a relationship was still in existence. Tory never reached out to Miguel...but he also never reached out to her. There's no relationship happening when no one makes an effort to communicate with the other person. The school fight opened Miguel's eyes to Tory's true colors, and he wasn't okay with it. Tory was too ashamed to face the consequences of her actions and decided to avoid him altogether. Robby may have been the only one holding out for some kind of reunion with Sam, but she clearly didn't feel the same way, seeing how her heart and emotions were always centered on Miguel (for what it's worth, Mary Mouser said in an interview that Sam was single by the end of season 2).

Why didn't Hawk defect earlier?

• So Hawk was motivated by the desire to get revenge for Miguel in season 3. Although Miguel had stopped being friends with Hawk after he found out about the arcade fight, why would Hawk be okay with going to fight against Miguel that quickly given he was his best friend and the motivation behind everything he was doing? Even if Hawk didn't know Miguel was going to be at the LaRusso house, why didn't he have doubts as soon as he saw Miguel there? Instead, Hawk fights on Cobra Kai's side for 90% of the fight.
  • Hawk was a lot more loyal to the Cobra Kai dojo itself than Miguel ever was (Miguel was more loyal to Johnny) because it helped Hawk completely turn his life around for the better. Because of this, it took him a lot longer to break himself out of the psychological grip the dojo and Kreese had on him.

What was Tory's objective in attacking the LaRusso house?

• So we see Tory storm out after Kreese tells her that Sam and Miguel are back together and saved the All-Valley. The next we see of her and any of the Cobras is when they break into the LaRusso house. But what was she expecting to find? Did she somehow know that Eagle Fang was meeting Miyagi-Do at the LaRusso house? Did she go there assuming only Sam and Miguel would be there (in other words meaning she was taking six Cobras all just to beat the absolute shit out of her ex-boyfriend and his current girlfriend in a 6 on 2 match)? Did she go there figuring that the entire LaRusso family would be the only ones there (meaning she was going after Sam, Daniel, Anthony, and Amanda)? Or something else?
  • Tory says, "Heard you were throwing a party. Hope you don't mind if we crash." How and from where she heard about it is up in the air, and since by this point Robby has severed his ties with Miyagi-Do and Hawk with his friends from Johnny's Cobra Kai (until his Heel–Face Turn mid-brawl), it's unlikely they could have known about it. It's possible since the other Miyagi-Dos and Eagle Fangs drove over that Tory's gang saw their cars parked outside, and maybe they were peeping through the windows/heard voices before they broke in.
  • Tory's basically giving into her vendetta against Sam. She's also not the most rational and sane person, and she plays dirty, which is why she brings her entire Cobra gang to Sam's house to attack her and resorts to deadly weapons to finish her off if needed. It's doubtful that logic really entered into the equation.

Why didn't Tory visit Miguel in the hospital?

• The only reason I can really think of is that she feels guilty about starting the fight. But Tory must have realised at some point that she was bound to bump into Miguel eventually. And it doesn’t seem that she was that angry about kissing Sam, as when she sees him for the first time afterwards she's pretty civil at first, and only gets upset when he suggests she should see someone about her problems.
  • Because Tory is impulsive and immature. She constantly does the wrong things based on what she feels like doing with no consideration for others. Not visiting Miguel is actually consistent with her character’s lack of consideration for what is right vs. wrong when compared to some of her other choices, like:
    • Pursuing a relationship with Miguel knowing he still loved Sam (bad choice because she knew she was the rebound and would get hurt).
    • Tripping Sam at the roller rink just for talking to Miguel, never mind that Miguel was the one who approached Sam (Other girls flirting with your boyfriend is an issue that you need to take up with your boyfriend, not with the other girl).
    • Committing a premeditated public attack on Sam over a kiss and attempted murder/maiming with deadly weapon (also puts her family in jeopardy since this is a jailable offense) instead of having a serious discussion with Miguel or walking away from that relationship.
    • After barely escaping juvie for starting the school fight, she risks her parole and jail time by stealing, encouraging Hawk to break Demitri's arm, and committing another premeditated break in and assault on the girl she's on probation for attacking at school.
  • It depends on which Tory one is talking about: the Tory that we see away from Kreese's influence or the Tory that is under his influence? And this is very important because the answers are very different since the psychology behind these differing aspects of Tory is similarly different.
    • Tory who isn't under Kreese's influence is difficult to analyze. She does feel guilty and is not sure what to do. Her world got shattered into a ton of pieces. She got expelled and has to get her GED, has to work two jobs, and care for her mother and brother. Additionally, her ex-boyfriend is in a coma caused by a fight she started. Make no mistake, everything she told Kreese at that point in time was 100% true on how she felt. Would she even be allowed to see him? What would she even say? Would he even want her there? If she went, would he break it off with her or go off on her like we saw him do to Johnny? Now remember, she is just a 17-year-old girl and all this is going on. And she is in the middle of all this. She's probably at this point pretty scared since her life got radically altered and the fear of the one thing that might be stable being upended may have legitimately been too much for her to do. So she avoided the possibility the best way she could.
    • Tory under Kreese's influence is much simpler to analyze. While a level of the above might hold true, she legitimately believes the best thing she can do for Miguel is not see him but instead exact revenge. She did get a part of her old life back when she got back in the dojo, and that was enough for her. Even if Miguel broke it off with her, that was fine because she still had Cobra Kai.
  • Tory doesn't visit him because she would have to face and own up to the fact that she foolishly started a school fight that landed Miguel in a coma. Visiting him means owning up to her own actions, which she would rather not do. Avoiding him is much easier so that's the route she takes.

Cobra Kai's motive shift

• So at first, the motive of the Cobra Kai students is getting revenge on Miyagi-Do for Miguel’s injuries. Except the person responsible for the injuries, Robby, is locked up, so I’m wondering if the real goal was to just torment the Miyagi-Do students every chance they got? This is ignoring Kreese obviously because Kreese doesn’t give a shit about Miguel, although he did use his injuries as a way to manipulate the students. But it definitely seems that some like Hawk (as Miguel's friend) genuinely thought they were attacking Miyagi-Do for Miguel while others just used it as an excuse to be violent criminals. The best case of this is once Miguel leaves Cobra Kai and joins Eagle Fang with the rest of the kids Kreese kicked out of the dojo. Immediately, Miguel is considered an enemy. Even so, Hawk is really the only person who has an issue once Robby joins Cobra Kai. At this point their initial motive no longer holds any merit. I guess the question is, "how genuine was Cobra Kai’s motive of getting revenge on Miyagi-Do? Did they start off genuinely believing they were doing right by Miguel or was it an excuse to be violent? Both?"
  • It was a shallow motive to begin with. Because of the school fight, almost every single Cobra Kai student entered season 3 with a score to settle with at least one of the Miyagi-Do members. Anyone who truly knew Miguel would know that he would never want that (look at the way Miguel reacted when Tory brought it up at the sushi restaurant). Claiming that they were antagonizing and seeking out fights because of Miguel was less embarrassing than admitting that they just wanted a rematch after losing round one in the school brawl. The only one who sincerely believed it and was motivated by it was Hawk...at least in the beginning anyways (as he was upset about Miguel's injuries). His purpose got lost along the way as he continued to stick with Cobra Kai even after Miguel cut ties with him for breaking Demetri's arm. So really, part of Hawk's motivation was the power he felt as a Cobra. In the end, Hawk was kicked out as much as he left. Kreese was essentially showing Hawk the door with each decision he made: kicking out Bert and Mitch, while recruiting Kyler and Robby. It was a matter of when Hawk realized this.
  • You have to consider that most of the Cobras from Seasons 1 and 2 (aka ones who had Miguel as a classmate and Johnny for a sensei) got replaced with Kreese's thugs. You see the gradual weeding out of the old guard as the season progresses. First Miguel, then Bert, then Mitch, then Hawk. By the end of season 3, Eagle Fang is comprised of all the original Cobras from Johnny's season 1 version of Cobra Kai. The only real outlier is Aisha, since her parents withdrew her. So by the end of it, there really were not a lot of people in there to carry on the motive. Closest is Tory, but Kreese plays Tory like a fiddle so she's not an issue.
  • Not true, by the end of Season 3 a considerable amount of background students that are holdovers from Johnny are still inexplicably loyal to Kreese's Cobra Kai (Mikey, Rickenberger, Dieter, Edwin, Big Red, etc. etc.). It really makes no sense as to why they're still loyal to Kreese's Cobra Kai though.
    • You likely pay more attention to the non-main character Cobra Kai students than the creators do; to the writers' they're probably just "Cobra Kai 1" and "Student 4," and to the production crew they're just stunt people. In-universe, Kreese is treated like a master manipulator and a cult leader (albeit somewhat thanks to Informed Ability) and can inspire loyalty without piggybacking off Johnny or really doing anything to earn it. Plus, Kyler shows us some kids are just evil and like being violent bullies, so Kreese is the natural option for them.
    • This is discussed in the Alternate Character Interpretation section.

Robby and Demetri friendship/lack thereof

• I know they weren’t especially close, but Demetri and Robby did train together, and Robby did come to his defense during the mall fight and at Moon's party. So why didn't Demetri show any sort of concern for Robby in season 3? I get that he’s closer to Miguel, but you'd think he could have been a sort of mediator between Robby, Sam, and Miguel. And I get that they wanted Robby to feel all alone and friendless so he could fall in with Kreese and the Cobras; but what if Demetri had told him how brutal they were? How they made his friend’s lives miserable, how they broke his arm, and how Kreese bloodied his nose the first time they met? Would Robby have had second thoughts about joining Cobra Kai?
  • Demetri was longer friends with Miguel than with Robby. Also, while Robby saved him from two beatings, they are never shown to really even talk to each other apart from karate. Robby is mostly focused on Sam in season 2, probably because she is his love interest as well as the second Miyagi-Do student, so they have a longer story. On the other hand, Miguel and Demetri have known each other longer and Miguel also saved his ass from getting bullied by Kyler in season 1. What Robby did to Miguel was also quite a shitty move, so maybe Demetri is pissed at him for that. Also, it is not even clear if Demetri ever saw Robby before the situation with Miguel and Sam or after. Robby is not at school with the others and he has not participated in Cobra Kai "raids" yet ... so, they probably did not have a chance to talk to each other yet.
  • Robby is very aware of how brutal the Cobra Kais are. He knew they trashed Miyagi-Do, he saw them fight dirty against him, and he probably knows about what Tory did to Sam. Knowing that they broke Demetri’s arm wouldn’t affect his decision. He believes Kreese’s teachings for the same reasons that Hawk and Tory did. The world showed him no mercy and in the main fights he was in in the first two seasons' finales, the winner of the fight was the one who was more ruthless, which were the Cobra Kais (Hawk and Miguel) in season 1, and Robby himself in season 2. The way he stopped the juvie kids from attacking him was by striking first. He tried fighting the “good way” and with honor, but it got him nowhere. Robby tried to be a good guy and he feels like everyone turned their back on him after he almost killed Miguel.
  • Much like Sam, Demetri didn't know what to make of Robby's actions and whether they were on purpose or not. And Demetri and the rest of the Miyagi-Do team didn't exactly have time to contact him and find out because they had to deal with the immediate problem of the Cobra Kais being hellbent on revenge for losing their individual skirmishes during the school brawl.

Hypocrite, aren't you, Daniel?

• Daniel takes concern with Sam adding more drama to her love life than she needs by going through three boyfriends in the span of 18 months, fine. It's understandable considering how those relationships ended. But doesn't this make him a hypocrite? Because I seem to remember him going through Ali, Kumiko, and Jessica^note Yes, Jessica counts, because she was supposed to be Daniel's love interest in The Karate Kid Part III, but Ralph Macchio wasn't comfortable kissing Robyn Lively since she was ten years younger than him and he had just gotten married, so they changed their relationship to be platonic. In the story though, they were supposed to be the same age and date from August 1984 to December 1985.
  • Daniel's concern isn't so much the three boyfriends. Rather, it's the fact that she's going through three boyfriends (including breaking up and getting back together with Miguel) so quickly while all three guys are within the same sphere of influence. In Daniel's case, Ali had graduated high school and moved on to UCLA, Kumiko stayed in Okinawa, and Jessica was a platonic fling, so it wasn't going to create any drama. In Sam's case, Miguel and Robby live in the same vicinity and have a fierce rivalry (because of Johnny), so Sam leaving Miguel for Robby then going back to Miguel is going to create problems. As for Kyler, it's not established if Daniel is aware of the fact that Kyler tried to rape Sam.
  • It's also just a very different perspective being a 50 something year old adult versus a teenager. Partly, it's being a father, but also to him it seems like she's changing boyfriends every other week while to her it seems like lifetimes.

What if Johnny hadn't missed out on his juvie visit?

• Johnny misses out on his juvie visit to Robby so he can provide moral support to Miguel's mother and grandmother. This obviously played a big part in why Robby was so open to being manipulated by Kreese later. But just what would change if Johnny had visited Robby?
  • Given Johnny's history with being an absentee parent towards his son (and his prioritizing of Miguel), there's no guarantee that it would have gone well. Robby was in juvie because he put Miguel in the hospital, and the fact that Miguel would have been under the knife at the time would have been on Johnny's mind. It was a recipe for disaster. The presence of Bobby, who could have interceded there without dragging Johnny out, might not do much for Johnny to salvage things. Robby finding his dad outside arguing with Daniel would have also alienated him, just like it does in canon.
    • Completely blowing off the meeting was pretty bad and probably the worst thing Johnny has done in the series. It doesn't seem like Johnny was having qualms about a difficult meeting, it seems like he just forgot about it. If it were truly at the same exact day and time of Miguel's surgery, couldn't he have changed it? Johnny doesn't appear to have even told Bobby, as he and Robby were just there twiddling their thumbs. Bobby probably could have helped with this and I don't think back surgeries just pop up on the schedule.
    • Johnny wasn't planning on staying for the surgery, as at the time he was told he was not welcome. Him being told to stay around by Miguel's Grandmother came out of left field for him. He was going to do his quick visit to take care of things, then immediately head off to see Robby. To be frank, it shouldn't have become a "Miguel vs Robby" scenario as he was paying his respects to both in his mind. The second Miguel's Grandmother intervened forced him into one though. If he bails from the surgery then he likely loses his chance to reconnect with Miguel permanently as Carmen and her mother would never forgive Johnny, and obviously we saw the alternative play out with Robby despising his father even more for not showing up. As for him not just rescheduling to make sure a conflict doesn't happen, convenience for plot sake. If Johnny did the sensible thing most times the show would've ended by the end of Season 1.

Why did Tory change her hoodie?

• I know a lot of foreshadowing / symbolizing gets done through wardrobe choices. But I don't get the point of Tory's skeleton hoodie during the house fight. I know it's a callback to Johnny's skeleton costume, but ... they already did that with Miguel in season 1. But what really puzzles me is, why did Tory swap hoodies and take on a new hairstyle specifically for the house fight when no one else from Cobra Kai (especially not Hawk or Kyler, who participated with Tory earlier that day in the snake theft) did so?
  • Maybe it was just some warped ritual she performed (like how people try to "dress their best" for particular life events); this wasn't just going to be another brawl, Tory had planned this to be the fight to "end it". Indeed, perhaps her choosing a garb with a skeletal design was intentional to invoke the Grim Reaper as she planned to "end it" with Sam.

Would Mitch have eventually switched sides voluntarily like Hawk did if Kreese hadn't kicked him out?

• Mitch's defection to Eagle Fang happened because Kreese had kicked him out of Cobra Kai after losing to Kyler, and his going back to Johnny is meant to be a heartwarming and inspiring moment for his character, but would he really have switched sides anyway eventually even if he hadn't been kicked out? For one, he was all-in on breaking Demetri's arm and shook Hawk's hand immediately after Hawk did it and was also unrestrainedly bragging about it at Cobra Kai practice the next day when even Hawk was visibly showing hesitation about it. Before that, he was part of the group that attacked Demetri at the mall, vandalized Miyagi-Do, and jumped Nate. Also, other background Cobra Kai students that were holdovers from Johnny's run, some of whom joined Cobra Kai the same time Mitch did (Mikey, Dieter, Rickenberger, Big Red, Edwin, etc.) all (inexplicably) stayed loyal to Kreese all the way through to the end of Season 3. All of this has me wondering: Had Mitch not been forcibly kicked out of Cobra Kai by Kreese, would he have really switched sides eventually? Or would he have decisively been on the Cobra Kai side of the house fight and stuck with Kreese till the very end like the other aforementioned background Cobra Kai students did? If it's the latter then I find if very hard to root for him as a character given that the only reason he decided to switch sides was because he was forcibly removed from Cobra Kai rather than because of any moral qualms or reasons (in contrast to Hawk) and that had it not been for that he would've still been as much of a sociopath as everyone under Kreese's Cobra Kai was. Again, him going back to Johnny and Eagle Fang is meant to be inspiring and heartwarming but all of these circumstances and facts ultimately make his switch seem completely non-genuine and self-serving.
  • Probably not. It's clear that Mitch going back to Johnny and Eagle Fang was done out of selfish reasons, as the Cobras had expelled him from their clique and he wanted a new group to hang out with. It's the influence of his Eagle Fang teammates, as well as the teaming up with Miyagi-Do, that makes him realize how toxic and wrong Cobra Kai is. Then of course in Season 5, Mitch returns to Cobra Kai and admits to everyone else that he never actually had a problem with them and would've stayed put were it not for Kreese kicking him out.

How can Cobra Kai compete under Kreese's supervision?

• In the third season finale, John Kreese agrees to leave if the Miyagi Do defeats Cobra Kai in the upcoming All Valley Karate Tournament. However, back in the first season, before Johnny Lawrence convinced the board to let Cobra Kai enter the tournament, the board stated that Cobra Kai was banned permanently after the actions of Kreese, Terry Silver and Mike Barnes. So why doesn’t the board oppose Cobra Kai joining the tournament if Kreese is back running it? Shouldn’t they wonder why Johnny was the dojo's sensei months ago but Kreese is now?
  • Since Kreese would only agree to shut down Cobra Kai and leave the Valley for good if his students fought against Johnny's and Daniel's at the tournament and lost, it's likely Daniel will explain everything to the board and convince them to lift Kreese's ban so the dojo can compete.
  • Terry could always just buy their way back in.
  • Johnny lift the ban in that same meeting, like it doesn't matter the names if you excused the club then the senseis get in.
  • With Kreese back in charge of Cobra Kai and the CK kids invading the LaRusso house, the board almost certainly would have reinstated the ban if either Daniel or Johnny had requested it. It's one thing allowing a new dojo with a legacy name decades later, but once Kreese is in charge, it's the same dojo and there's clear evidence it's up to even worse shenanigans. But after making the agreement with Kreese, neither Johnny nor Daniel would go that route because they would consider it wussing out/dishonorable. If Amanda were aware of all this, she might well have demanded it.

Cobra Kai Purge

• So the thing with the mouse and the cobra was supposed to be Kreese rooting out and then expelling all the "weak" Cobra Kai students, and we're lead to believe it was 100% effective because in his next scene, Kreese is explicitly telling his students Might Makes Right and none object or leave afterwards. But how did Kreese know that every student who didn't raise their hand in objection to the mouse getting eaten really was a Social Darwinist or Sociopath, and didn't just understand where Kreese was going with the lesson and didn't want to be on the wrong end of his Drill Sergeant Nasty routine and/or accepted that some snakes need live food and the cuter animal's life wasn't objectively any more valuable? Seems like he had little reason to feel safe effectively espousing Sith philosophy to his students afterwards. And on a broader note, after kicking out most of his students for showing empathy, why is Kreese accepting new students, apparently no questions asked, in the next season?
  • Most likely he recruited new students and tested them offscreen.

Season 4

The Forgetability of Kreese & Silver

• How come no one on the Tournament board even vaguely recalled that up until about a year ago, Cobra Kai was banned from participation along with its current two senseis? It's literally never brought up.
  • It is a rather large plot hole but it could be argued that the ban was not on Kreese and Silver but on the Cobra Kai dojo itself. Since Johnny got that ban reversed it may have also inadvertantly ended the ban on both Kreese and Silver. I believe Johnny was under the impression Kreese was dead and he never met Silver before so he never expected to see either of them at the time.
  • They don't care they lift that ban and barely recall they could ban club. Like the thing they do recall is that Cobra Kai won last tournament and got a lot of audience.
  • Also, 30+ years is a long time for anyone to sit on a board. People move to different places, retire, find other interests, just get tired, etc. It's highly doubtful that anyone who was on the board in the '80s is still there now. Meanwhile, as noted above, Daniel doesn't want them to remember, because he wants to settle it with the tournament, so he won't bring it up.

Daniel and Johnny's Issues

• Did Daniel and Johnny really not bother to sit down and discuss how the alliance of their dojos was going to work beforehand? These problems they're having should have been hashed out before pursuing this endeavor.
  • Nope. They were both stubborn and assumed the other would just bend to whatever it was they wanted to teach the students. As shown during the season, this was a huge mistake.

Kreese having an issue with Silver's beatdown of Johnny

• At the end of Season 3 Kreese tried to straight-up murder Johnny by choking him to death, so why does he all of a sudden have an issue with Silver simply wanting to beat him to a pulp? Kinda feels like the concern came out of nowhere.
  • Perspective. Kreese was full on in Vietnam mode during the Season 3 finale. He wasn't in a calm state of mind, he was in full on war "Kill or be killed" mode. With Silver beating the shit out of Johnny Kreese was in a calmer state of mind and not in the fight himself. That allowed him to actually properly take in what was happening. Also, despite being a Jerkass he has a very subtle I Gave My Word code. All the Senseis agreed ultimately to leave it for the tournament, despite Kreese not being a fan of it so he felt that this was going back on the spirit of the agreement.
  • As Terry surmised at the end of Season 4, Kreese has something of a Double Standard for Johnny. In Kreese's twisted view Johnny had always been like a son to him; Abusive Parents (or at least the ones that do legitimately care for their children) have trouble recognizing when their treatment is becoming abhorrent, particularly when they're in the middle of "disciplining" their child. Kreese, whether he would have actually followed through with murdering Johnny or not that night, saw himself just punishing Johnny for (in his mind) turning his back on his family. Silver beating down on Johnny may be the first time Kreese is witnessing exactly what it looks like from a third-person perspective and it sickened him, which for some Abusive Parents is enough for them to realize how horrible they actually are.
  • Johnny started the physical fight with Kreese where Kreese almost killed him. Kreese might even have considered his own life at risk. While it's true Kreese had been instigating with non stop mind games, he might well believe "we were just talking and he viciously attacked me." It's a very different situation when Silver lured Johnny to the old dojo and kicked him in the head when Johnny didn't even know he was there. There's no perceived danger or heat of the moment, it's straight up beating someone and violating their agreement.

Deserted shop

• When Hawk's former Cobra Kai classmates assault him at the tattoo parlor, where did the tattoo artist go? It seems a bit strange that he/she left a client alone at the shop.
  • Maybe they found a way to distract Rico long enough for them to do their business with Hawk. An experienced thief like Robby probably would know a thing or two about distracting people long enough to get a task done.
  • Confirmed in a deleted scene. We also learn that Big Red was in on it.

Useful school

• After weeks of bullying, the school's staff suspend Anthony and his friends for bullying Kenny. When did they become so useful? If they could track down bullies by doing research and asking witnesses, then how did the school find out when Anthony and his friends bullied Kenny but didn't find out about the bullying some students were forced to endure at the hands of Kyler and his friends back in season 1?
  • Kenny and Anthony were at a different school than the High School kids. They were in Middle School, after all. Granted, Kenny still lucked into a Principal who actually cared enough to intervene at all but still.
  • The massive dojo/dojo battle at the end of S2 was major local news and the accusations it was rooted in bullying would have quickly surfaced, leading to some sort of (at least attempted) crackdown on bullying across all LA schools. It's even possible that battle led to the installation of those security cameras in Kenny/Anthony's school. Further, Kenny deliberately provoked Anthony in a way that would be highly visible on those cameras.

Moon, do you have a predilection for bullies?

• Back in season 2, Moon broke up with Hawk due to his becoming a bully under Cobra Kai's influence. She was seen shortly thereafter dating a girl, whose name is revealed in this season to be Piper. While looking for potential Eagle Fang students, Johnny and Miguel try to recruit her, but she ends up joining Cobra Kai thanks to Silver's merchandise. The thing is, however, that when she fights Samantha, Piper assures her that Cobra Kai has taught her no mercy, proving that she will do anything to defeat her. Then why did Moon fall for Piper in the first place? She explicitly told Hawk that she didn't date bullies...
  • Piper joined Cobra Kai after their break-up, though. She wouldn't be the first reasonably empathetic teenager to become brutal due to the tutelage of Kreese and Silver.

Lucky Silver

• How did Silver know exactly the moment Stingray was going to wake up at the hospital and tell the detective that Kreese was the one who beat him up? Somehow, despite Stingray clearly telling the detective in the morning, the police wait until Silver and Kreese are alone at the former's house to arrest the latter. Couldn't the police have interrupted the All-Valley Tournament to arrest Kreese then and there, in front of all their Cobra Kai students?
  • Presumably, Silver has contacts that would have informed him about Stingray waking up, which he seemingly did while the tournament was going on and right before the final matches. By the time it was over, maybe an hour later at most, it was dark outside, and Silver could have contacts among the police and could have informed them where they could arrest Kreese without it being in front of kids that looked up to him.
  • We don't know exactly when Stingray woke up and spoke to the detective but even with a suspect's name they can't always pinpoint them right away. Maybe Terry tipped them off just as he's about to serve Kreese and himself the Bollinger.
  • I assumed Silver was orchestrating things behind the scenes with the cops in some manner anyway because doesn't it seem excessive how much police force was assigned to this case? A detective and all this assigned to what looked like some sort of mugging or whatever?

Are We Supposed To Feel Bad For Tory?

• I mean, 2x attempted murder, gang violence, ganging up Hawk, she really just comes off as unsympathetic regardless of her rough home life and jerkass aunt.
  • You don't have to feel bad for her if you don't want to. The entire point of the show is that not everything is Black-and-White Morality and you can form the opinions on anyone the way you desire. At best, the show's stance is that what Tory has done has earned legitimate ire from many people, especially Sam. Her backstory doesn't excuse her actions, but at the same time her actions don't preclude someone from trying to help her legitimately and getting her to improve as a person. But if you still want to hate her, just like Sam does, you have every reason to want to and nothing stopping you.
  • Yes? She is a teenager who resents that she has to grow up fast and hates that someone like Sam likely won't have to grow up for years yet. Robby has similar rage issues and is at least as dangerous, he just doesn't do the Slasher Smile and the circling.
  • See, the thing about Tory is her violent behavior isn’t to be excused. However, let’s look at it like this. She’s had a rough life; Her mom is bedridden, forcing her to have to work to provide food and shelter for her and her brother, her jobs are meager and demeaning with terrible bosses, and as we saw in S3, she also had to deal with a pedophile landlord. Tory’s had a hard life and she hasn’t been able to get support to deal with all the stresses. And it would appear all the adults were unsympathetic to her. The only one who cared was Kreese. And Kreese is a man who encourages violent behavior. With only a violent man as the adult she could trust, Tory of course embraced her dark side. But now Amanda is showing support and empathy for her. This could finally help Tory realize how bad her violent behavior is. Not just for herself but for others. With support from Amanda and hopefully a good therapist, she could become a better person. She’s not irredeemable. Look at Chozen. He viciously bullied Daniel and Kumiko and even tried to murder both of them. Look at him now. Also, both Daniel and Kumiko forgave Chozen even though he did try to kill them at one point. Because Chozen was able to go down a better path and he became a much better man. Tory can too if she’s given the right help and support.
    • True in the broad strokes, but somewhat charitable. Her mother is stated to be bedridden, not comatose, and likely wasn't that way for Tory's younger years, so she still could have taught her right from wrong. Other potential role models in Tory's life include the teachers or counselors at her schools (assuming they weren't also contractually obligated to be useless), the heroes of American pop-culture, and later her friends like Aisha, who learned to be tough but compassionate, and Miguel. Both of them had been under Kreese's tutelage as long as Tory had been when she started the school fight. And besides the mentor issue, her Freudian Excuse clearly didn't teach her compassion or even enough pragmatism to not commit serious crimes that could easily get her sent to jail and leave her mother and brother alone. None of this is to say she's a bad character or could never change, but it's unfair to say she just needs a good adult in her life, as she clearly has deeper issues that cause her to soak up bad influences while largely ignoring good ones.
  • Tory and Sam were both wrong in regards to their actions towards each other, but it’s pretty obvious that they will eventually burry the hatchet and make up.
    • Which would be out of character for Tory, whom Fridge Logic says makes the worst out of every situation and ignores all good influences in her life, so even if she loses interest in Sam, if something drastic doesn't happen to change her, sooner or later in her life someone else will make her angry and she'll try to kill them. But only if you consider the fridge logic, which the writers probably don't and don't expect the audience to either.
    • Tory doesn’t ignore all good influences in her life, as she has been greatly influenced by Amanda’s help and her therapy sessions.
    • All we know about Tory and her therapist is that Tory's been keeping up her appointments with them and they helped her find someone to help with her mom, but fair enough, that does imply they're influencing her. Why she's more willing to listen to the mother of her arch-enemy than apparently her own mother, Johnny, her friends, teachers or American pop-culture is likely a case of Offscreen Inertia, or the perfect storm of good and bad luck, meaning Amanda offered her material support exactly when Tory was at her near-worst in life, and after she'd already decided to be a jerkass and perhaps found that is wasn't solving all her problems.
    • Before, Tory likely thought she had nothing to lose by acting out to deal with her anger issues and mental illness. After her expulsion and becoming the sole breadwinner of her family in season 3, she began to reevaluate her life but that was interrupted when Kreese came into the picture by convincing her violence is still the answer when he dealt with her landlord. In season 4, her situation with her aunt forced her to see how her temperament is detrimental to her family when she's faced with a problem Cobra Kai can't solve. As a result, she chooses to listen to Amanda because Amanda had been the most consistent recently in reaching out to Tory, and Tory probably viewed her as the easiest to approach in Crossing The Burned Bridge.

Does Johnny even know Mitch's real name?

• We've only ever heard Johnny call Mitch "Assface" and "Penis Breath", never his real name, so is there a possibility he doesn't even know it?
  • Back when he was running Cobra Kai, he had to get information from all of his students, their parents and so on for bookkeeping. So yes he knows his name, he just likes trolling Mitch.
    • True, but Johnny has always been shown as someone who isn't too keen about doing paperwork, and it's been a while since he was running Cobra Kai, so that and the fact that he's only ever called him by the aforementioned degrading nicknames makes it entirely possible that he never bothered to remember it or that he's forgotten it since.
    • A deleted scene from the tournament in Season 4 shows Johnny congratulating him and accidentally calling him "Mike" in the process, and when Mitch tries correcting him, Johnny goes back to calling him "Penis Breath." Yep, Johnny didn’t even know his real name. Or just doesn't care enough to.
  • Probably the latter; this is the same guy who announced "asthma does not exist in this dojo," after all. Most likely Johnny figures that if Mitch really minded, he'd say something.

How is Johnny supporting himself financially?

• As of Season 2, Cobra Kai was Johnny's only income that we know of, and he lost it. In Season 3 we even see him looking for new jobs to no avail. While he does open Eagle Fang it's highly unlikely he's getting any income from that with the meager accommodations, and even if he was he doesn't have nearly enough students to supplement his own income. Yet in Season 4 we don't see him struggling for money at all, even being able to afford legitimate gi for everyone in Eagle Fang. So how is Johnny doing it?
  • Maybe he inherited a little bit of money from Sid?
    • Maybe he had still saved some of that check Sid gave him way back in Season 1.

Why does Robby seem to actually like Shawn? He literally has no understandable reason to.

• The way Robby refers to Shawn in Season 4 sounds like he's talking about an old buddy rather than the vicious and monstrous guy who made his existence a miserable hell during his time in juvie enough to make him become angry and bitter enough to choose to go down the dark path he went on in the first place. (Think about it, Robby angrily yelled at Sam saying that he couldn't write back in between getting his face busted in. Busted in by who? SHAWN. He's angry that Daniel turned him in and that it led to him getting bullied in juvie, bullied by who? SHAWN AGAIN. Yet he's inexplicably more angry at Sam and Daniel than Shawn in Season 4 for everything that happened despite the fact that the worst things that happened to him in Season 3 being directly because of Shawn's actions rather than Daniel's or Sam's) I know they sort of patched things up after their fight, but it seems a little ridiculous to suggest he grew to like Shawn as much as he seems to in Season 4 and especially that he grew to like him more than Daniel and Sam right? He should want revenge on Shawn way more than he wants revenge on Daniel and Sam yet he seems to actively be willing to help Shawn (by mentoring Kenny) despite the fact that Shawn is one of the people that made his life so much worse in the first place. Seems a little unbelievable and ironic. At the very least, if he can forgive Shawn for everything he did he should be able to forgive Daniel and Sam too for doing things that were way less egregious than what Shawn did, yet he seems to be able to forgive Shawn for doing worse things and unable to forgive Daniel and Sam for doing less egregious things, which makes no sense.
  • We don't see Robby and Shawn interact after their last fight, but it's implied Shawn came to respect Robby and they became friendly during that time until Robby was released.
    • Then why was he still angry and bitter enough over what Shawn did to him to end up turning to Kreese and Cobra Kai?
    • He was angry that his father kept failing him. Robby becoming a Cobra has nothing to do with Shawn.
    • Are you seriously suggesting that all the hell and misery Shawn put him through in juvie had absolutely nothing to do with how bitter and angry he was after getting out? (with said bitterness and anger being the very reason he ended up joining Cobra Kai) It's made pretty clear that his Trauma Conga Line in the entirety of Season 3 added up is what pushed him over the edge to join Cobra Kai, and Shawn making his life hell in juvie is undoubtedly a huge part of that Trauma Conga Line. He even noted at the beginning of Season 4 that "Cobra Kai (may have) helped me when I was getting jumped in juvie", with the implication that that was why he sided with Kreese at the end of Season 3. Who was he being jumped by in the first place that caused him to use Cobra Kai to deal with it (and subsequently join them after getting out)? Shawn.
    • If you've ever been in a fight with peers you know that sometimes you can get decked with a right hook by someone and five minutes later be goofing off with that same person (especially in regards to teenage boys). Robby did mention that Cobra Kai helped him when he got jumped in juvie...and also gave him a new friend by the end of it. Consider the fact that it's not just simply a one sided "Robby thinks of Shawn highly for no reason", Shawn also respects Robby enough to send Kenny to him. Not only that, he knew exactly WHERE to send Kenny to. Kenny went directly to Cobra Kai to look for Robby, something that Shawn would've only known if he was corresponding with Robby after Robby was already out of juvie. Thus it's pretty clear how the order of events turned out. Robby fighting off Shawn and his goons, but specifically didn't snitch which earned Shawn's respect. They likely started to hang out while in juvie and become close enough for Robby to follow up on him sometime after leaving. To finish answering your question of "Why the hell would Robby ever look at Shawn fondly after what he did", look at the parallel with Aisha this season. Aisha has a new Alpha Bitch in her school, something that is the type of person she absolutely despises thanks to her past trauma. She uses what Johnny taught her to Strike First, and gains a new best friend. Robby sees what happened in prison as "Miyagi-Do kept me on Defense and didn't do anything to get me out of my problems. My father didn't have the decency to come see me and left me high and dry. Cobra Kai's lesson got me out of my situation and gave me a new friend, so I'm gonna trust in it."
    • To your first point about getting decked and then goofing off with the same person five minutes later, I actually did think about that point the first time I wondered this question. However, from my understanding at least it seems like when that happens the argument/fight in the first place would be between people who were Vitriolic Best Buds already or that at least the argument/fight would've been because of something that wasn't that serious or important to begin with. This wasn't the case for Shawn, Shawn and Robby weren't in conflict over who the best comic book character was or even over differing perspectives on how to complete a group project, Shawn was deliberately hitting Robby in the places where it hurt the most, the most serious and sensitive parts of Robby's life, what with taunting him about his relationship with Sam and Johnny, two things that are very sensitive issues for Robby and not at all "unserious" or "unimportant" to him. So because of that, I didn't think that the common principle of becoming friends with a person you were just fighting applied here. To me Robby and Shawn becoming friends seemed as unrealistic as if Kreese became friends with David after saving Betsy from him or if Miguel became friends with Kyler and his gang after the cafeteria fight in Season 1. As for the latter portion of your answer regarding Aisha and everything you said after that, fair enough that makes sense.
  • Shawn was just another punk in juvie. To Robby, Daniel's actions were a betrayal and hit far deeper. After becoming his mentor, Daniel cut Robby out due to a misunderstanding then soon after turned him into the police. I doubt Robby and Shawn became friends, but there was a grudging respect after the fight. Shawn and the others got to see Robby is no easy target so stop starting fights with him. It's not hard to see them having a chat afterwards about Robby's karate. Also, Kenny is rather young and even if Robby despised Shawn, Robby might not want to slime Shawn in front of his young brother who legitimately needs help. As for going to Cobra Kai, Kreese worked his mind tricks on Robby.

No Backlash For The Attack On Hawk?

• So. The Cobra Brats jump Hawk, in a public place mind you, attack him, choke him, pin him down, forcibly shave him, flat out committing assault...and NOBODY Cares? Not even his own team? No backlash against them or anything? Sam doesn't tell Amanda about Tory assaulting one of her teammates? Nobody wants revenge? Nobody uses this as a rallying call given that the Cobras are obviously never going to stop? Nobody brings up the Cobra Brats breaking the No Fighting Truce? Nothing? Bull. If anything, this should've resulted in Sam immediately telling Amanda what Tory did, resulting in Amanda cutting her off and the Miyagi-Fang students jumping some of the Cobras in retaliation while Johnny and Daniel see the writing on the wall and team up, knowing that the Cobras can't be trusted not to come after them and their students. This should've been the rallying call that united everyone against the Cobra Brats and their Senseis and resulted in one hell of a reckoning coming for them. Instead, everyone just shrugs their shoulders and lets it slide. It honestly makes zero sense.
  • It is admittedly by far the biggest plothole of the season, since they blatantly went against the rules set by the senseis. They did keep trying to hammer in "We're not here to fight" or "Just because we can't fight doesn't mean we can't get payback" even though it's obvious it was a straight-up assault. The only thing really "explains it away" is that Johnny and Daniel were far too busy dealing with their own ego checks with their fight to actually care what happened to Hawk as a whole, and the dojos broke up in the immediate aftermath. But in reality this is just the writers wanting a certain result (Hawk getting his hair shaved to force a hard reset of his character) and not really knowing how to effectively achieve that result without fudging things massively.
  • A simple solution would have been to have Eli just shave it himself as part of his character development. It would have had way more meaning than the Cobra Brats launching yet another gang attack on someone without consequence. As it is, the whole thing makes the heroes look like complete pushovers.
  • Plenty of the fights and the underreactions in this show bother me, but this one didn't, or at least less so; broadly speaking, they have no means of enforcing the no-fight rule; even if Kreese had specifically ordered a much worse attack, the heroes have no way of punishing him, other than breaking the truce (though this calls attention to the stupidity of Daniel and Johnny believing Kreese will keep his word if he loses, and vice versa.) And yes, if the dojo had witnessed it, they'd have seen a group of 6 jump one guy in a public place, punch him, choke him, and menace him with a straight razor (The fact that Hawk didn't assume they were about to cut his throat and start begging for mercy is both unrealistic, and a missed opportunity, given what the scene lead to). But all Hawk left with was a shaved head and broken phone, the actual attacks were kids stuff compared to the fights he's been in and shrugged off the consequences of, so the attack was technically in violation of the truce, but not damaging enough to get the heroes, especially Daniel, to throw away any remaining potential peace or chance to shut Cobra Kai down for good by declaring open war. Yeah, Sam should have told Amanda, but Amanda already knows Tory isn't a good person and is reaching out nonethless in the hopes of improving her. Plus, not all the heroes took it lying down; it lead to a heated argument about the efficacy of striking back, which lead to the dojos splitting up. The attack could have been a rallying cry, but it wasn't because of the very different reactions it provoked in Johnny and Daniel.
  • The truce was broken the moment the brats jumped Hawk though so that doesn't work. The moment that happened, they should've said screw it and gone back to the gang war for all the difference the stupid truce made.
    • Yes, it was technically a violation, but a relatively minor one, at least compared to what Cobra Kai did before the truce, and wasn't even ordered by Kreese, so Daniel, in the same naive optimism that made him accept the deal in the first place, still holds out hope that there'll be no more attacks if Myagi-Do doesn't react agressively, and that they can still go to the tournament and ruin Cobra Kai's reputation by beating them. Johnny wanted to retaliate, but that lead to a disagreement and the dojo's splitting up. Yeah, Johnny probably should have still had his students attack Cobra Kai, but maybe the tournament was close enough at that point that he figured time was better spent training them to both win at the tournament, and defend themselves if Cobra Kai tries something like that again.
    • Minor? Ganging up on someone, strangling them with a belt and coming at them with a razor is a MINOR Violation? How? How was this anything but a full on attack?
    • We're getting into matters of opinion, but they didn't deliberately strangle him with the belt, just restrained him with it, which is still pretty bad, but Hawk had no evident trouble breathing in the scene. They also didn't attack him with the razor, (it would have looked like that to anyone watching, but only for a moment), they just cut his hair with it. Hawk's taken much worse beatings in stride, and came home with no bruises on his face or neck, so he and everyone else saw the forceful shaving and blow to Hawk's pride as the real crime, which is pretty minor compared to the home-invasions and brutal beatdowns the truce was made to stop.
    • Fair point! I think I'll leave off here lest we keep going in circles, lol.

Is it supposed to be clear that Miguel would've beaten Hawk?

• In the Recap page for Season 4 Episode 9, in the entry Worf Had the Flu a troper states that it's made clear that Miguel would've beaten Hawk if his back hadn't acted up again. Is it really that clear that he would've beaten Hawk though? If Miguel being able to beat Hawk without his back acting up is really the point the writers were trying to convey with the first portion of their fight (before Miguel's back DID end up acting up), then I think they should've had Miguel score at least a point before his back acting up put him out of commission.
  • It's a big maybe really. Personally, I'd put Robby, Hawk and Miguel at roughly the same level at this point if their minds are on the ball.
  • It's really nothing more than wild conjecture. All we really have to go off of is the fact that Miguel had beaten Hawk decisively in the one fight they've had and is generally The Ace when it comes to all the kids. But his heart wasn't really in it either during the All-Valley. Simply put...who knows? I will say though that I do not believe whatsoever that the writers intended for it to be made "clear" that Miguel would've beaten Eli had he not gotten hurt, in fact it would've been the opposite. Miguel looking superior to Eli would've thrown a small bit of shade onto his eventual triumph in the finals. All that was shown were that Eli and Miguel were evenly matched initially and know each other well, so Miguel tried to dip into a move he hadn't shown anyone before which led to his injury.

The Deal

• So this season tries to justify Daniel accepting Kreese's deal by having Daniel say Kreese doesn't need to start keeping his word for it to work out for them; if Cobra Kai loses the tournament, no one will want to join them. And fair enough; from Daniel's POV, the two times he knew Cobra Kai lost the All-Valley, it also effectively died as a business. But why doesn't Johnny, who we know didn't win every tournament he competed in back in the 80s, point out that a dojo's business can survive not getting first place in a single tournament? Also, what will that do about Kreese's current students, who have proven themselves murderous, criminals who explicitly believe Might Makes Right and are firmly loyal to Kreese, or even Kreese himself, whom sends kids to brutalize and possibly kill other kids when he isn't doing it himself?
  • I don't think it makes any real world sense, the show is just honoring its basis in the movies, particularly the third film. Silver (for some reason) believes winning the tournament was/is crucial to CK's success, even though he's incredibly wealthy and willing to spend vastly on CK.
    • But it doesn't make in-universe sense, either. Cobra Kai ended after Daniel's first all-valley victory because Kreese attacked his students and nearly killed Johnny for losing a vendetta personal to Kreese and because Johnny stood up to him. Silver's plan was his attempt to revive a dead business; when it failed, it makes sense that business simply stayed dead (and this series justified why Silver didn't try again.) Daniel might not have the info or intelligence to realize this vital broader context, but the plan wouldn't work because of these in-universe reasons, and Johnny should know this.

Season 5

Why does Amanda not know anything about Daniel's past with Terry Silver or Mike Barnes?

• It's still a bit odd that Amanda would be married to Daniel for so long and even know Mr. Miyagi personally without knowing most of what went on during the events of the three Karate Kid movies but in this season, we learn that she is Jessica Andrews' cousin and she met Daniel through her. At no point did she ask, "How did you meet Daniel?" because it would be really hard to have that conversation without mentioning Terry Silver or Mike Barnes. And yet, it's a big shocker when Amanda learns that Jessica knew about Silver for the past 30 years.
  • Jessica likely knew how traumatic the experience was for Daniel and felt it would've been wrong to bring it up. She likely simply told Amanda that they met because of the pottery store she worked at being across the street from the bonsai store and nothing more.
  • Jessica would have been nearly as traumatized as Daniel, maybe even more so. She was there for a great deal of Silver's torments, including when Mike and his thugs were threatening her and Daniel while they hung from a cliff, and she was physically attacked by Mike. She might not have wanted to go into it either. Amanda apparently got the "headlines" description of the first three movies, and without any details, the third movie isn't terribly interesting because it sounds like just another tournament adversary.

How could the prison therapist not be aware that Kreese had pickpocketed her badge?

• She is shown leaving the jail after her shift ends so it is safe to assume that she doesn't live there; she should immediately notice her missing card and report it. Beside, why did Kreese need to pickpocket her in the first time? If he had already planned to evade through the infirmary he could have just used the doctor's keycard (since he's already wearing his clothes).
  • In regards to the second question, using the doctor's keycard would definitely be the easier and more obvious option. However, it's possible that Kreese felt he had to outfox the therapist as part of his plan to get even with her for messing up his early release plan.
  • In a roundabout way, it may have actually been more clever for Kreese to pickpocket his therapist and use her keycard rather than the doctor's, even if he was taking a major gamble by doing it. If the doctor still had his own keycard on his person when he was first discovered by other prison guards and authorities (likely unconscious, dead, or at least in shock, and quite probably also not aware of the therapist's keycard even if he was not), they might not immediately think that Kreese had already left the prison if they were still unaware of his therapist's missing keycard or else did not put two and two together right away (possibly due to information not being efficiently shared among the internal prison staff), giving him extra time to make his getaway.

Why did Johnny and the Miyagi Do/Eagle Fangs never try to convince Devon to not join/leave Cobra Kai?

• Devon never had a falling out with Johnny and the Eagle Fangs, and was even hanging out with the Miyagi Do and Eagle Fangs at the water park, which meant she was still on good terms with/friends with them, she even participated in the scuffle against Cobra Kai at the water park. But aside from Johnny showing concern initially at seeing Devon in a Cobra Kai dojo when he went there with Chozen, there was never after that any attempt on his part or the part of the Miyagi Fang students to try to convince her to not join/leave Cobra Kai, nor was there even any concern shown by Johnny or any of the Miyagi Fang students at Devon’s presence at Cobra Kai much less any attempt to get her to leave. They had plenty of chances to reach out to her or try to reason with her, whether it be at the Sekai Taikai fight or at the all out fight at the end of the Season, yet the whole time Tory was the only one that was trying to convince her to leave, why did Johnny and the Miyagi Fangs basically act like Devon wasn’t once on their side and left for no big emotional reason and therefore not try to win her back, the lack of attention they paid to her joining Cobra Kai made absolutely no sense. Hell, why didn’t someone contact her when they all gathered up at the Miyagi Do-dojo to convince Daniel to continue the fight against Silver at the end of Episode 6, they were still friends right? They should’ve kept her in the loop, and she should’ve been right there with them to try to convince Daniel. It’s like everyone that shouldn’t have ignored Devon collectively decided to ignore her the whole time. You could even argue that it even seemed like Johnny and the Miyagi Fangs forgot she even existed. The way she looked at Johnny during the Sekai Taikai fight before facing Sam would have you believe they had some sort of nasty falling out and therefore had serious beef with each other, but nothing of the sort happened/existed and Johnny really should’ve been able to sway her pretty easy yet did nothing. The way she asked Tory “you’re with them now?” right before the final fight would have you believe she had hated the Miyagi Fang alliance the whole time and was always a fierce enemy of theirs, yet she was ON that same side not that long ago and left it for no serious emotional reason and didn’t have a falling out with any of her former teammates, so it makes no sense for her to see them as now “mortal enemies”, this is in stark contrast to Kenny’s explicit falling out with Robby, which made that enmity make sense. It really makes no sense at all. Devon got overlooked and ignored by the other characters In-Universe to a frankly unreasonable degree and it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
  • Simply put, outside of Bert they only knew Devon for six weeks. After that point the All-Valley happens, the Alliance loses and Johnny immediately closed the doors for Eagle Fang. In the interim between then and when the season starts back up Devon had already gone to Topanga Karate and pretty much dropped contact with the Eagle Fangs. She hadn't been a part of the group long enough to form any lasting attachment to them and vice versa. Johnny showed initial concern because he did take a liking to her, but none of them knew her all that well to try and pull a "You betrayed us/you're better than this" card on her.
  • It is not true that she had “pretty much dropped contact” with the Eagle Fangs, as I mentioned in my question, she was hanging out with the Miyagi Fangs at the water park, which means they were still friends and therefore in contact and hadn’t cut off contact like you said, she even participated in their scuffle AGAINST Cobra Kai at the water park, which, now that I’ve mentioned it, makes even less sense that the Cobras just accepted her without question not long after that.
  • I did admittedly forget about the Water Park Scene as a whole. In which case, yeah chalk it up to the writers completely whiffing on her character and just having a really bad bout of bad writing to get her into the position they wanted her to be in.
  • It does feel like some story pieces with her are missing, maybe cut for time. But it felt like she was meant to be strongly Aspergers in S4, so she might not have been strongly connected to anybody.
    • I'm on the spectrum, and saw few to no reasons to believe that. And even if she was, that generally just means that you're socially awkward, not that we don't value the connections we do make.
  • Maybe her being at the water park was a script mistake i.e. the script said "Eagle Fang is at the park" and so the director assumed Devon should be there, since the script hadn't yet showed that she wasn't part of that group anymore.
    • Well, she had actual lines in that scene, she wasn’t simply in the background, which means that she had to explicitly be in the script for this scene when it was being written.
  • It's worth noting that the water park episode was before Silver took over Topanga. So Eagle Fang closes, she joins Topanga and continues to hang out with her friends, and then she becomes part of Cobra Kai. Because she's so new, she wasn't there for any of the drama of seasons 1-3, so she doesn't personally know at first how bad Cobra Kai actually is, and soon it begins to poison her. The "you're with them now" question may have been more shock (since she knew Tory had a big rivalry with the others) and less hatred. Still doesn't explain why Johnny never reached out to her. Maybe he never got her phone number? Actually, that's very likely, come to think of it; most likely training sessions were organized through word of mouth and/or Miguel running a group chat.
    • Okay so if that's the case then why didn't Miguel ever reach out to her?

Why does Chozen speak English when he calls Kumiko?

• They're both fluent in English, of course, but they're Japanese native speakers, too. A conversation/confession about such a touchy subject should be held in a familiar language.
  • We only hear the conversation from Chozen's side and he was completely drunk so he probably wasn't thinking clearly.
  • There might also be some Translation Convention, where we hear foreign characters speaking English with each other for the benefit of American viewers (who notoriously hate reading subtitles), even though we’re supposed to accept that they’re “really” speaking their native tongue. You saw some of that in the original film (by “original,” I mean The Karate Kid Part II).

What happened to the original Cobra Kai dojo that Terry Silver reacquired in the previous season?

• In episode eight of the fourth season, Silver brings Kreese to the original Cobra Kai dojo "on the corner of Magnolia and Lankershim" as featured in the first and third films, which he tells him he has reacquired and is remodeling as part of his plans to expand Cobra Kai franchises throughout the Valley, and later ambushes Johnny at this location. However, it does not become the flagship dojo for Cobra Kai, and never even appears in the fifth season (unless I am mistaken). Is it possible that Terry might have left the remodeling job incomplete and flipped the property, since it seemed as though a major reason he acquired it was originally to impress Kreese, and he may have wanted a clean break with nostalgizing over that part of the past when their Big Bad Duumvirate fell apart?
  • Who knows? It could still be part of his franchising model or he could've abandoned it with Kreese gone. Either way it doesn't hold any particular significance without Kreese so the show didn't spend any time on it.
    • Arguably, it could still hold some personal significance to Silver even without Kreese (e.g., the place where he tortured "Danny-Boy" - though that does seem somewhat complicated by Silver's repeated efforts in Season 4 and early in Season 5 to bury the hatchet with Daniel, before plunging wholeheartedly back into ruining his life all over again). That being said, the "loss of sentimental value due to turning against Kreese" explanation seems plausible in the absence of any evidence otherwise, possibly alongside remembering that it was also where he got his ass handed to him by Miyagi.

Why is Terry Silver an existential threat?

This could also go under alternate character interpretation, but he's not personally being violent against people in the community and dodging law enforcement like Kreese did and it doesn't look like he's doing anything other than teaching a "no rules" brand of karate. If Daniel doesn't like his kid being bullied (which he oddly seems oblivious to), why not target Kyler and Kenneth as bad eggs at the high school?

• In that way he's a little like Max Cady from either version of Cape Fear, albeit much less of a loner.
• Most of the adults agree that they should let Silver do Cobra Kai. Amanda and Johnny in particular believe the war is over. The three characters that want to fight Silver are Daniel (plus his ally Chozen), Kreese and Tory. Kreese because he was betrayed and framed, Tory because is a cheater and Daniel because of his history with Silver. Even still, had Silver accepted Daniel's capitulation instead of beating him, he probably would not have been brought down.
  • Daniel also knows how far Silver is willing to go in his abuse of his students. He could let it go but it would come at the expense of many other kids and teens who would potentially deal with the same fate, with very little being able to do anything about it due to his ridiculous amount of resources and power. Lastly, there's no guarantee that had Silver wouldn't have come back after Daniel later just for shits and giggles to finish the job, and everyone would've been helpless at that point.

How in the world is Mike going to sell the Rembrandt?

I mean, that's not eBay material and an art collector would probably know who the last legitimate owner was: he cannot just auction the painting and be done with it.

• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy + Didn't Think This Through?
• Alongside some of his other actions in Season 5 (e.g., using hard drugs, his initial thought being to target Daniel rather than Silver as revenge for the arson of his store, and then impulsively pursuing revenge against Silver by breaking into his home rather than taking Daniel's more patient approach or attempting to inform the authorities), it might still imply that for all of the ways that Mike has changed for the better, he still has some lingering character flaws, and occasionally employs morally dubious (or at least morally ambiguous) methods, in his approach to life.
• There is a Black Market for stolen art. And Mike is in the furniture business, so probably already has connections to foreign traders.
• This is Rembrandt's Storm on the Sea of Galilee, which has been missing since 1990, and the reward for returning it is $10 million. He could just claim he found it at the flea market or whatever and get the money legally.
  • Technically, Mike wouldn't have to make the "flea market" claim, and it would likely just be better to be honest and state that he recovered it from Silver's home (i.e., reveal that Silver owned stolen art, adding to his litany of other crimes). While this would mean Mike would have to admit to breaking into Silver's home with Johnny and Chozen (and two wrongs do not necessarily legally make a right), the authorities are inevitably going to discover this anyway when they pour over the security footage from Silver's home as part of their criminal investigation into him, so why not at least make yourself out to be a media hero by revealing that you recovered a famous missing painting to help mitigate or even eliminate any charges that you would be facing for your own actions?
• On a related note: Why was this even needed as an out? Whether arson or accidental, a fire shouldn't have left Mike destitute if he had commercial insurance, which Daniel implies at the start of episode 4 that he did indeed have, and he himself implies even more strongly when he says that his store was "leveraged to the hilt"; they're absolutely going to make you insure your business if you're already borrowing against it.
  • Why would Mike pass up the chance to make $10 million?
    • That's not the question, though. The story makes it seem as though the painting was a last-minute reprieve that saves his business, but he shouldn't have been left twisting in the wind without it. Nobody would fault him for nicking it either way, obviously, but it ought to be more of an "I'm keeping this, bitch" thing than a "Thank God, I'm not ruined after all" one.
  • Fair point. Maybe he's just still not thinking clearly through a combination of head injury, adrenaline, and whatever he's high on?
  • Just rewatched the episode; it sounds to me like he's making it an "eye for an eye" kind of thing; "you burned down my furniture stole, I'm gonna steal this painting in return" rather than relief at his store being saved. Could go under Alternative Character Interpretation, I guess.
  • The clear implication here is that all or at least most of the insurance money goes to his creditors, meaning that he may not be completely bankrupt, but his furniture store is completely lost. At least until he steals the painting, that is.

What was Silver's masterplan?

• If he buys every Dojo, there wouldn't be a lot of local tournaments possible. And what is a Dojo without regular tournaments, champions and trophies?
  • It seems that Silver was willing to forgo the opportunities that local tournaments would bring in favor of national and international recognition from high level tournaments like the Sekai Taikai. His goal was to make Cobra Kai synonymous with karate, so in his mind who cares about having the All Valley tournament if you have an international chain of dojos with kids taking your classes.
  • Yeah, think of it as branding. McDonald's isn't going to win any awards for "Best Restaurant" but it's still going to have a high volume of customers and influence across the world. That's what he's aiming for. To make it so you cannot possibly practice Karate without joining or knowing about Cobra Kai worldwide. To make his legacy everlasting.

Why did Silver not bother Johnny until the latter became re-involved in Daniel's crusade against Silver's Cobra Kai from mid-season onward?

• In the fourth season finale, Silver threatens Kreese that he will "take good care" of Johnny while Kreese is imprisoned, but they do not interact until later in the fifth season and Silver does nothing to antagonize Johnny until then. Did Silver only say this to metaphorically rub salt in Kreese's wound when he was arrested (since Johnny was his "weakness"), did he intend to follow through but temporarily relented when Johnny initially honored his side of the agreement to disband his dojo and (unlike Daniel) did not attempt to interfere in Silver's business, or did he always plan to eventually resume targeting Johnny whether he had sided with Daniel again or not?
  • Honestly, I’m not convinced the writers were thinking that far ahead when they put in that line from the fourth season. That said, I think Silver’s primary motive is maximizing his power, and he simply isn’t that invested in revenge or score-settling like some of the other characters are. Even in The Karate Kid Part III, he was participating in a revenge plan for Kreese’s sake, not his own; he was only interested in the power he gained through it. In the show, once he neutralizes Kreese, he doesn’t really show much interest in going after any other enemies as long as they stay out of his way. So the line from the fourth season was probably more bravado and intimidation than a serious plan to go after Johnny.
  • Yeah, it's as simple as Johnny wasn't bothering him. Note, Silver also didn't make any moves against Daniel initially either until Daniel kept poking the bear. As far as Silver was concerned the two were holding up their end of the bargain (as far as he knew) and were thus neutralized so he had no particular reason to care about what they were up to until they officially got involved with his business again.

Why did Mrs. La Russo and Carmen walk into the dojo in the season finale?

• They're obviously not going to be effective in a fight, they could be arrested for trespassing, and they could even be attacked by a crazy kid. At that point, they'd known that some of the teens had been pretty brainwashed.
  • For the same reason they got in the car with Stingray, because their kids are involved. Very likely Truth in Television Mama Bear behavior. If anything, they are played overly tame.

Did Miguel remember to grab his backpack?

• When Miguel was in Mexico, he had his backpack. Now when he was crashing with Hector, he had his backpack there; however, when they went to the MMA club, Miguel did not take his backpack with him. It doesn't appear that Miguel even had his backpack with him when he returned to the States. Is it possible Hector will find out that Miguel was indeed his son?
  • Could be a production oversight, could be a Hook for later seasons. But unless Miguel had his full name somewhere on his backpack, his only objects of identity would be in his wallet or on his phone, both of which he'd probably put in his pockets if going to an event, rather than continuing to lug his backpack around. Even if he has something else with his name on it, Hector won't necessarily connect "Miguel Diaz" with the woman he had a fling with about fifteen years ago. Quite frankly, it'd be surprising if he even remembered her last name.
  • There's a chance that he collected it at the house off-screen. Hector said he had to lay low a week or two and would not return back to the house anyway due to thinking that the authorities are after him.

Thematic Issues And Student Responsibility

• It's clear that this show wants to stress one of the first movie's themes: there's no bad student, only bad teacher. But Season 5 ends with all the Cobra Kai's, including Kyler, quitting out of some kind of distaste for Silver, and we're supposed to assume this is the end of their violent crimes. Is the show absolving all of the Cobra Kais under a Just Following Orders or Children Are Innocent ethos? Because most of them are teenagers if not legal adults who continued to follow Kreese - putting up with his contempt and hostility to many of them - as Cobra Kai committed worse and worse crimes, Kreese kicked out Johnny and their fellow members for showing empathy, and literally told them that Might Makes Right. TLDR: how does the show reconcile the fact that teenagers do have consciences (as proven by Hawk) and often choose their teachers with the idea that Cobra Kai's evil ends with its sensei?
  • I don't really need to go into detail about why teenagers aren't judged as harshly for their actions as adults. This is a pretty widely held principle, built into our very legal system. It doesn't mean we give them a pass on everything, but it does mean we recognize their brain development is still unfinished, and many people who have done bad things as teenagers have turned out all right. That said, the show does not restrict its redemption arcs to teenagers. Chozen was a legal adult when he did the terrible things in The Karate Kid Part II. Hell, so was Sato, a middle-aged dude, and that was in the original movie series. (I personally never bought Sato's Heel–Face Turn in that film, but it's an example of the romantic conventions that have been part of the franchise from the beginning.) I also think the show is furthering the idea that the karate schools function essentially as cults, with father figures taking advantage of psychologically vulnerable kids with a history of abuse.
  • For the judging them angle? Sure, (even if the remaining Cobras proved time and time again how much worse they were than other teenagers in the exact same circumstances). But the question of how this is supposed to pan out remains. Chozen, Sato and Mike Barnes had actual redemptions (offscreen or otherwise), all the Cobra Kai's just decided to ditch Silver for unclear reasons; there's still a gang of trained martial artists who like to commit violent crimes running around. Guess we'll have to wait for the next season to see if Keystone Army or No Ontological Inertia will apply.

---