History CobraKai / TropesSToZ

** Tory Nichols. She may be a mentally-ill psycho, but you can't help but feel sorry for her because of her poor living situation, her nasty streak with her landlord, and the fact that she's literally the ''breadwinner'' of her family since her mother is in dialysis. When she finally gets a taste of victory in Season 4 (albeit as an anti-hero), it's all for naught because a certain, sleazy businessman bribed the ref to give her an unfair advantage.

* WallOfWeapons: Kreese keeps various weapons mounted on the walls at Cobra Kai. To Amanda, this just more evidence of how messed up he is, [[Irony despite Daniel having a few bō staff and a pair of nunchucks]] in the Miyagi-Do dojo.

* TheTeam: The [[KidHero kids]] in the combined "Miyagi-Fang" dojo form a very effective one that ultimately succeeds where their parents and senseis failed by [[spoiler:uncovering the evidence to destroy Silver's reputation and take down Cobra Kai]]. Miguel Diaz is the [[TheAce best fighter]] and the one who [[TheLeader rallies the rest of his teammates]] — explicitly shown when he has them "Protect the Egg" (Anthony [=LaRusso=] and the iPad) in the FinalBattle at Terry Silver's Flagship Cobra Kai dojo. [[TheLancer Robby Keene]] is Miguel's ultimate {{Foil}}, his former rival and the most recent defect from Cobra Kai at the start of the season. He re-joins Miyagi-Do to atone for his mistakes and tries to get his former Cobra Kai teammates (particularly Kenny) to do the same. [[TheBigGuy Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz]] is the recent All-Valley champ and the male representative of the Sekai Taikai qualifier who still show signs of a FightMagnet (particularly with Kenny and Kyler), despite embracing more of Miyagi-Do's teachings. He's still a GeniusBruiser when he helps Demetri hack the server in Silver's flagship dojo in the FinalBattle. Demetri Alexopolous is a pop-cultured geek who takes his other talents with tech to the next level by working as a Tech Town employee and [[TheSmartGuy using his experience to hack the server's in Silver's flagship dojo]]. Samantha [=LaRusso=] is an ActionGirl and the dojo's [[TheSmurfettePrinciple sole female member]] who plays a critical role in having the Miyagi-Fangs qualify for the Sekai Taikai by defeating Devon Lee in the exhibition bout. Anthony [=LaRusso=] is the youngest team member and a NonActionGuy, but plays a vital role in [[TheHeart convincing everyone to work together]] and uses his tech skills to expose Silver's corruption to the Cobra Kai students. Chris is a GentleGiant who tends to lose most of his fights but provides some [[BigFun comic relief]]. [[FatIdiot Mitch]] is allied with the dojo [[TokenEvilTeammate out of convenience instead of any moral reason]] [[spoiler:and ultimately betrays the team]]. Bert and Nathaniel are the [[PintSizedPowerhouse two physically smallest members]] and are inseparable despite [[VitriolicBestBuds insulting each other all the time]]. Tory Nichols [[SixthRanger joins the Miyagi-Fangs]] in the season finale close to the FinalBattle, using her keycard to help the others enter the flagship dojo. The team is rounded out by various assorted dojo members who lack much characterization but [[MenOfSherwood prove more than capable in group fights]].

* ThrivingExCrush: PlayedWith. In the 30+ years since the events of ''Film/{{The Karate Kid|1984}}'', Johnny's remained a dead-end loser who peaked in high school and never left LA, while his old girlfriend Ali has gone on to become a wealthy surgeon in Denver. They reconnect at the end of Season 3, and Johnny confesses that he feels like he wasted his life compared to her. Ali replies that her life hasn't been without mistakes and that her marriage is on the rocks.

** The Season 2 finale makes things even ''worse''. A massive brawl between Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai breaks out in school, with no one (well, besides [[LovableCoward Demetri]]) trying to deescalate it any way. Everyone is brazenly fighting at every opportunity (Robby tries to stop it initially before getting tackled by Miguel), the students sit back and just film it on their phones, only one teacher tries to stop it (and gets his ass kicked in the process) and chaos ensues. By the end of it, absolutely no one is better off for what happened and many lives are ruined in the process.

** Season 5: [[spoiler: While Terry is defeated, fully exposed and imprisoned; Cobra Kai's name is disgraced and pretty much everyone who had a problem with each other is now reconciled--except maybe Robby and Kenny, Kreese escapes jail, fully intent on continuing his war with Johnny and Daniel--and may have the charges dismissed against him with Stingray coming forward--and the competition with the Sekai Taikai--whether or not Cobra Kai's involved--is still on the horizon too.]]

** Season 5: [[spoiler: While Terry is defeated, fully exposed and imprisoned; Cobra Kai's name is disgraced and pretty much everyone who had a problem with each other is now reconciled--except maybe Robby and Kenny, Kreese escapes jail, fully intent on continuing his war with Johnny and Daniel--and may have the charges dismissed against him with Stingray coming forward--and the competition in the World Tournament--whether or not Cobra Kai's involved--is still on the horizon too.]]

** Season 5: [[spoiler: Kreese escapes jail, fully intent on continuing his war with Johnny and Daniel.]]

--->'''Cole:''' You...''[[IncrediblyLamePun musket]]'' down here!

** [[Recap/CobraKaiS4E5MatchPoint Season 4 Episode 5]] of Cobra Kai have Johnny and Daniel reflect on how the other is a bad influence and the cause of their problems during their TrainingMontage. While some of their flashbacks are justified, other flashbacks leave out how they were part of the problem and they only remembered the part where they were the victim.

** Season 2: Unlike Season 1 where a lot of the above were just really unfortunate miscommunications on top of really terrible timing, Sam isn't as blameless. [[spoiler: After getting drunk and getting mad at Robby, she kisses Miguel upon finding out he returned Miyagi's medal of honor, and Miguel kisses her back. An enraged Tory sees this, and decides to pick a fight with her at school. At the same time, trying to hide Sam from her parents while drunk leads to Robby taking the blame and getting disowned by Daniel. Between finding out about the kiss and having his relationship with Daniel wrecked, Robby is in a terrible emotional state during the brawl, causing him to hit Miguel when his guard was down and knock him off a second story landing. Miguel ends up in the hospital, Robby goes to juvie and never gets a chance to smooth over trying to deny Miguel credit for returning the medal, Daniel has to temporarily shut down Miyagi-Do, Kreese gets an opening to seize control of Cobra Kai, and he eventually is able to manipulate Robby into joining Cobra Kai.]]

* WillTheyOrWontThey: Swap out "unresolved sexual tension" for "unresolved urge to beat the everliving hell out of each other", and this trope describes the relationship between Daniel and Johnny to a tee. The showrunners know that Daniel and Johnny just ''have'' to fight again, but they also know they can't let it happen too soon, or allow the tension between them to drown out the new generation's share of the story.
** A straighter version with Johnny and Carmen, culminating at the end of the third season. They're dating by Season 4.

*** Daniel holds to this principle when opening Miyagi-Do to other students. The first thing he invites them to do is painting a fence, and many scoff at him for trying to get free labor and leave (in the original movie it was implied Miyagi used it to [[SecretTestOfCharacter test Daniel's patience and obedience]]). Daniel's own son Anthony, who was showing more interest in karate than ever before, declines an invitation to train with Sam and Robby because [[GenreSavvy he knows Daniel is going to have him do chores]].

** While in prison, Kreese once again tries to paint himself as a VillainWithGoodPublicity to the prison psychologist and staff to get himself an early release, and initially it seems like it worked. [[BaitAndSwitch But this time]], the psychologist isn't fooled because she has dealt with plenty of manipulative prisoners who tried to tell her what she wants to hear in her career.

** For all the times Johnny accuses Daniel of winning the 1984 tournament because of an illegal kick, he fails to remember the only reason why Daniel chose to perform that move in the first place was because it was his last resort, since Johnny and Bobby before him had been ordered by Kreese to assault Daniel with illegal moves and managed to cripple him twice. And even if the Crane Kick ''was'' considered an illegal move in-universe, Johnny's "''illegal'' contact to the knee" gives him no right to speak about unfair victory, because Daniel played by their rules and still won.

** Johnny name-drops a number of 80s metal bands that he likes, which usually feature in the soundtrack.

** When Amanda confronts Kreese at his dojo, she refers to him as Franchise/{{Rambo}}.

** Kenny and Shawn's dad prominently wears US Armed Forces O-4 insignia on his uniform. Which makes him Film/MajorPayne.

** Johnny knocks Kyler down with a jump kick, then immediately groans and clutches his groin. Performing an acrobatic move when out of practice (and without warming up) gives a high chance of injury. There's also the matter of kicking in snug-fitting jeans, which aren't cut for freedom of movement.

** Several lines in Season 3 are spoken in the Okinawan language, which most people outside of Okinawa don't even know exists.

** In [[Recap/CobraKaiS2E6TakeARight "Take a Right,"]] Johnny meets up with Cobra Kai [=OGs=] Tommy, Jimmy, and Bobby, and mentions that he and Kreese are rebuilding Cobra Kai. The others react with incredulous anger, pointing out that those of them who got anywhere in life did so ''in spite'' of Kreese's teachings, not because of them, and agreeing that the only thing that can happen is that this crop of kids turn into the same kind of JerkAss degenerates they were. [[spoiler: The remaining episodes prove it.]]

** In the last two episodes of Season 5 Stingray wears a T-shirt with [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda a certain 8-bit sword next to the caption "IT'S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE! TAKE THIS."]]

** [[Recap/CobraKaiS4E5MatchPoint Season 4 Episode 5]] of Cobra Kai have Johnny and Daniel reflect on how the other is a bad influence and the cause of their problems during their TrainingMontage. While some of their flashbacks are justified, other flashbacks leave out how they were part of the problem and they only remembered the part where they were victim.

** Of all the people in the Karate Kid franchise, '''Kreese and Silver''' were this in their youth. Their experience in the Vietnam War and loss of a cherished teammate warped them to become the AxCrazy men they are today.

** The trailers for Season 3 imply are large part of it will focus on Daniel and Johnny teaming up to take down Kreese. [[spoiler:While this does happen, it's not until the season finale. Their initial team up was to find Robby after he went on the run and the partnership goes south fairly quickly.]]

** Piper and Tory are the two girls in Cobra Kai's tournament team in Season 4.

* UngratefulBastard: At one point, Johnny accuses Miyagi of assaulting him and his friends unprovoked. He forgets that the same man he's accusing of assault intervened when Kreese started choking him, as the second movie would reveal.

* WallOfWeapons: Kreese keeps various weapons mounted on the walls at Cobra Kai. To Amanda, this just more evidence of how messed up he is.
** Terry silver has two: One in his residence and one in his flagship dojo.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:

--> '''Sam:''' ''"I'm coming for you, bitch!"''