"If only we could get him to sit down with your sensei and talk like he did with you, it'd solve a lot of our problems."
— Samantha LaRusso discusses Daniel and Johnny with Miguel.
Oh, brother. A common pattern in Cobra Kai is that a lack of communication leads to serious consequences. Nice job breaking it, indeed.
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Season 1
- A running theme in Season 1 is that every time Johnny and Daniel are about to set aside their grudge, something happens to put them back at each other's throats. The feud between Johnny and Daniel restarts because Daniel fails to find out Johnny’s side of the story, and Johnny is too pissed off to tell Daniel what really happened. When they are actually forced to talk things out properly, they are able to address the issues that caused the conflict and realize that they aren't so different.
- Johnny is fired from his handyman job because he mounted a TV on the wrong wall. The woman said to mount it opposite the door, but there were two doors in the room and Johnny misunderstood which one she meant. Neither want to admit that they might have been wrong, and Johnny then seals his fate by telling her to "stop bitching".
- This is briefly, refreshingly, mildly subverted when Daniel accuses Johnny of beating up Kyler's gang, and Johnny immediately states that they were the ones who instigated the confrontation — against a kid half their size. Daniel's expression (briefly) makes it clear that he's considering Kyler didn't give him the full story, and while they end the encounter as enemies, Daniel never brings up the incident with Kyler again. Similarly, Johnny eventually mentions that Daniel's daughter was part of the hit and run on his first car, which Amanda later verifies as true. Unfortunately, these two clearing-the-air moments didn't resolve their deeper resentments or prevent further misunderstandings.
- After Robby hears from his mother that Johnny talked to her about helping Robby, he goes to talk to Johnny thinking he might actually want to change. He walks in on him hugging Miguel and rather than wait till Miguel leaves to talk to Johnny about what he saw, he immediately assumes the worst and works for Daniel to get back at him only furthering the rift between the two.
- Sam and Miguel's relationship:
- Johnny's biased description of his rivalry with Daniel and statement that "you can't trust a LaRusso" makes Miguel paranoid that Sam will cheat on him based on her innocuous interactions with Robby.
- Sam hides her relationship with Miguel because she is worried that Daniel will dislike him on principle due to being a member of Cobra Kai. However, she fails to explain this to Miguel, increasing his insecurities. It's also likely that if Sam had introduced Miguel to Daniel he would have seen what a Nice Guy Miguel is and realized he was wrong in his prejudice against the dojo. Sam learns from this mistake in Season 3, defending Miguel from Daniel's distrust when they get back together, and Daniel and Miguel discover that they aren't so different when they finally get a chance to talk.
- Sam's failure to own up to her part in the hit and run that damaged Johnny's car meant that she wound up being grounded on the day of the Canyon Party and wasn't allowed to use her phone to explain to Miguel that she couldn't go. If Amanda had simply allowed Sam to text Miguel that she was grounded, Miguel wouldn't have been convinced that Sam was avoiding him and wouldn't have gotten so drunk.
- After their fight at the Canyon Party, Sam is still willing to talk things out with Miguel at the Tournament. Although he apologizes for accidentally hitting her during the confrontation with Robby, he fails to apologize for needlessly resorting to violence in the first place, which was what Sam was actually upset about. He then doubles down on the "strike first, strike the enemy" mentality and promises to defeat Robby in the final, which upsets Sam even more. Miguel's horrible communication with Sam at the tournament is what ultimately doomed him, and not necessarily hitting her. It's telling that in season 3, Sam instantly agrees to resume the relationship with Miguel when he returns to school and says he's disassociated himself from the Cobra Kai students.
- Robby can't bring himself to tell Daniel that he is Johnny's son. Daniel and Johnny wind up both finding this out at the worst possible time, when Robby walks in on their reconciliation in Episode 9, which causes both men to feel betrayed and wind up at each others' throats again and Daniel to lash out at Robby in his anger. Although Daniel and Robby make up in the following episode, Daniel and Johnny's relationship is as bad as it's ever been.
- Johnny's biggest failure in Season 1 is his inability to properly teach his students that his version of Cobra Kai is supposed to be about empowerment and not letting other people mistreat them. However, this also large in part comes from his Nostalgia Filter meaning he cannot see the inherent flaws within Cobra Kai's philosophy until it's too late.
- In part, this comes from the fact that Daniel doesn't tell Johnny about the events of the third movie until Season 4. Johnny sees Daniel being determined not to let what happened to him happen to other kids, and interprets it as him being a jerk unwilling to give Cobra Kai a second chance. Daniel sees Johnny opening a new version of Cobra Kai to empower kids rather than teach them to hurt others, and interprets it as Johnny doing to the next generation what Barnes, Silver, and Kreese did to him. Had Johnny known earlier about the events of the third movie, he might well have kicked Kreese out before things got so bad, or even never let him teach. Certainly, there would have been less bad blood between himself and Daniel to start with.
Season 2
- Johnny not telling his students about his relation to Robby and telling them to mind their own business when they find out causes them to think he's only mad at them for injuring his son, not because he thinks fighting dirty is wrong. Though later on, Johnny does admit to Miguel he should've told him and the others about Robby sooner. . . and that this has nothing to do with his dressing them down for fighting dirty in the tournament.
- When telling Amanda that John Kreese is back, Daniel says that he's a pyschopath who faked his own death twice. He doesn't tell her about the "no mercy" mentality he encourages in his students, that he tortured Daniel, that he nearly murdered his own favorite student just for coming second place in a tournament, or any of Kreese's other despicable acts. This leads to Amanda thinking that his rivalry with Cobra Kai is more like professional pride than anything else, and not being supportive to Daniel and Sam for the next couple seasons.
- Daniel (due in part to his own obsession with defeating Cobra Kai) fails to instill the pacifistic portion of Miyagi-Do Karate into his students. Thus they're more likely to go out and pick fights in order to feel justified fighting in self-defense, Robby being the biggest example. He also fails to teach (not that he really learned it himself) the importance of deescalating dangerous situations, something Miyagi was a master at. Thus when said situations inevitably come up due to his students feeling brazen, they only serve to throw fuel on the fire.
- Daniel finds the Miyagi-Do dojo trashed, Miyagi's Medal of Honor stolen, and "Cobra Kai never dies" spray-painted on his prized classic car. Daniel drives this exact car to the Cobra Kai dojo to confront Johnny about this, but because Hawk and his posse undertook this on their own (under Kreese's suggestion) Johnny has no idea what Daniel is talking about. Instead of taking Johnny out to look at the damming graffiti on the car, Daniel exhorts the Cobras to abandon Johnny and come train with him. This only succeeds in pissing off pretty much everyone (all three existing Miyagi-Do students have a hard time accepting former Cobras, the Cobras get an extra hate-on for the turncoats, and Johnny gets angry that Daniel is now directly poaching his students). Again, this only escalates tensions between the sensei and students of the two schools.
- Played for Laughs in Episode 8 when Johnny was going on dates. The first woman with kids seemed to be getting along well and had some chemistry with him. The problem was since Johnny didn't mention he was a karate teacher so his mentioning of becoming physical with his student made him sound like a psycho to the woman.
- Neither Robby nor Johnny thinks to call the LaRussos after Moon's party to tell them Sam stayed the night at Johnny's, despite them generally being Reasonable Authority Figures as parents. Although Johnny says he will have to tell Daniel about it, he only comes to this conclusion the following morning, by which point it is too late and Daniel is already angry and worried because Sam never came home the night before. He then adds fuel to the fire by not letting Daniel into his apartment straight away, leading to their fight and second falling out and Robby blowing his second chance with Daniel.
- If Sam had admitted to Robby that she kissed Miguel when she had the chance, he might not have hesitated to help her when the fight with Tory started, and the entire brawl could have worked out differently.
- Robby's attempt to deescalate the school brawl by pulling Tory off Sam turns into a mess when Miguel arrives at the wrong moment and only sees Robby pinning Tory to a locker and fighting off the Cobra Kais trying to help her. He gets the wrong idea, thinking Robby was attacking her, and in turn tackles Robby, causing the entire situation to spiral out of control.
Season 3
- Robby and Sam's relationship in a nutshell.
- Robby does not talk with Sam, neither about the cheating or about the brawl. This leaves her unsure if his attack on Miguel was an accident, which she reveals in an interview on the news. His refusal to talk makes her question if he wants to stay together following her cheating and the school fight.
- When Robby finally goes to respond to Sam's messages, another kid in juvie unplugs the computer while he is typing a reply. Much like when Sam got grounded in Season 1, there's no way for him to answer her messages. This leads Sam to thinking he wants nothing to do with her, she assumes the relationship is over, and decides to reconcile with Miguel after his off-the-cuff speech to save the tournament.
- Then when Robby finally meets Sam in person, it is just as she is having a romantic moment with Miguel. He accuses her of hooking up the moment he was arrested, while she tries to explain herself and points out his lack of communication from prison. Robby angrily insists she's lying while he refuses to acknowledge the criticism, and the two part on bitter terms.
- Daniel takes too long to get to his point that he wants Robby to turn himself in to get a lighter sentence. As a result, it makes it seem like he was just stalling for the police to arrive and Robby becomes bitter towards him due to believing Daniel sold him out. With Robby now estranged from both Johnny and Daniel, he easily falls into Kreese's arms.
- This finally gets defied at last. In Eagle Fang's first lesson, Johnny flat out told the students that the goal is to be badass, tough and able to end any fight, but this does not excuse using those skills to become bullies and target any of their peers. This was exactly what he had wanted Cobra Kai to do in the first place, but learned the hard way how to teach that.
- It's also defied in Sam and Miguel's reconciliation. The tipping point of the reconciliation appears to be Miguel's improvised speech to the council to save the tournament. Sam has absolutely no idea what Miguel is going to say when he takes the podium. But without hesitation, she comes down to stand by his side to support him in the speech. Showing Miguel that she is on his side and also probably showing her dad that she's with Miguel on that too. It's actually one of the few occasions where the communicating parties get the message across better with actions than with words. This also gives Sam the impetus to stand up to her dad and beg him to have a sitdown with Miguel to get to know him better, which ends up paying dividends as Daniel finally realizes the parallels between Mr. Miyagi's role in his own life and Johnny's role in Miguel's life.
- Defied again when Sam realizes that trying to get her dad and Johnny to talk will be impossible, so she comes up with the idea of getting the students of the two dojos to talk.
- It's revealed in "December 19" that this is why Ali and Daniel's relationship ended. Daniel saw Ali with a UCLA student, who was an old friend of hers. In a similar vein to how he handled Johnny kissing Ali, he immediately assumed the worst, starting a fight between them. Ali's fault was egging Daniel on in her anger despite the situation being Not What It Looks Like.
Season 4
- Everything in the final three episodes between Miguel and Johnny end up contributing to Miguel's decision to leave the Valley to head to Mexico to find his father. When Miguel admits that he loves Johnny, Johnny says "I love you Robby" instead in his drunken stupor, clearly breaking Miguel's heart and playing into the comment Robby made earlier that Miguel was nothing more than a replacement for Robby. Miguel never confronts Johnny about this while he's sober however, which has Johnny contribute his recent poor mood to his argument with Sam. Then when Miguel injures himself during the Semi-Finals against Eli it worsens. Johnny continues to try and push Miguel to get back and fight, feeling that tough love is what's needed (also Johnny himself wanted Miguel to sit out the All-Valley and had to be convinced by Miguel to let him compete after an argument about it so he likely didn't want to repeat that mistake), but it makes Miguel feel like nothing more than a tool for the Karate War. Miguel though, never clearly states his feelings or the fact that he doesn't feel that his back is in a good enough place to fight. As such, Miguel ultimately forfeits and the two never get to speak or reconcile before Miguel leaves in the cover of the tournament to head to Mexico.
- Hawk genuinely means well when he tries to tell Kenny to get out of Cobra Kai while he still can, but his aggressive tone, demeanor and poor choice of words makes it sound like a threat, which only further ensures Kenny's loyalty to Cobra Kai, and indirectly leads to the Cobra Kais deciding to get their revenge on him by jumping him at the tattoo shop.
- A rare instance of the recipient being at fault. Johnny half-jokingly suggests Daniel is treating Sam like a Generation Xerox, turns out Sam actually felt this way but never told her dad. Johnny gives a speech telling her how proud he is that he took his own path in life, not following his own parent's desires when she accuses him of being a Jaded Washout. Unfortunately, Sam took this to mean embrace her true self, even her own worst qualities, and starts acting out like rubbing Tory's difficult life in her face and cutting class.
- While Kenny explains to Robby from the start that he needs to learn karate due to being bullied at school, he never actually mentions the names of the bullies. Thus, Robby has no problem with taking Kenny under his wing and having him join Cobra Kai to defend himself, but fails to teach Kenny that fighting isn't always the answer and might doesn't make right. When Robby finally learns that Anthony was Kenny's bully, he's horrified that he accidentally turned Kenny into a thug that just gave Anthony a beatdown. Season 5 makes it clear that, had he known Anthony was the bully from the get go, Robby would've used his pre-existing relationship with him to nip it in the bud and it would've kept Kenny free from Cobra Kai's corrupting influence and turning into a bully himself.
Season 5
- After the events of last season, Robby decides he's done with Cobra Kai and tries to get Kenny and Tory to leave with him. However, unbeknownst to Robby, Tory has also become disillusioned with the dojo but has decided to take it down from the inside by being The Mole on Kreese's behalf. The problem is, Tory is afraid that if she tells Robby this, it would mean blowing her cover. So when Tory tells Robby she's not leaving the dojo even after Cobra Kai causes trouble at the water park, Robby thinks she's beyond saving and decides to end their relationship.
- Apparently, Mitch never even spoke up about his irritation being called "Penis Breath" by his peers, which contributes to him betraying the Miyagi-Fangs for Cobra Kais. Clearly, the use of the nickname was a means of endearment from his now-former teammates (unlike, say Kyler, who uses it as a means of degrading), but who knows what could happen if Mitch either simply told someone like Bert or Hawk to stop calling him that, or even report to his senseis if they don't listen (Daniel at least, as a former bullying victim, would definitely understand the desire not to be called a derogatory name, and it's highly doubtful that Chozen would allow it either). Instead, Mitch defects to Cobra Kai at the Final Battle, which becomes All for Nothing when Silver gets exposed as a fraud and a cheater, and his old sensei, Daniel beating him to a pulp. As he'd revealed his defection just prior to the final battle, and fought on Cobra Kai's side, neither group will want him back.
