YMMV / Cobra Kai

Subpages

• Alternative Character Interpretation
• Anvilicious
• Awesome Music
• Base Breaking Character
• Broken Base
• Catharsis Factor
• Ron the Death Eater
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic
• Woobie

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A-D

• Adorkable:
  • Due to his nerdy, awkward personality, Demetri can be endearing to some fans, and it's very satisfying to see him begin to grow out of his shell. Even Yasmine finds him endearing!
  • When Johnny tries to be romantic with Carmen Diaz, he's obviously unsure of how to relate to her, and it's rather sweet to see such a tough guy acting so shy around the woman he has a crush on.
• And You Thought It Would Fail:
  • When the series was announced, it was dismissed by many as yet another unnecessary Hollywood revival of a long-dead franchise with nostalgic value and that it would flop. The fact that it was premiering on YouTube Red, a service which had struggled to gain traction against streaming giants Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime also didn't help. When it premiered, reviewers praised it for being a well-written series that manages to balance the nostalgia while bringing new energy and dynamic characters who are just as good as the originals. The first episode wound up being watched by 5.4 million viewers on its first day and was quickly renewed for a second season within a week. Eventually it was picked up by Netflix and is held up as an example of how to revive a dormant franchise the right way.
  • Amanda LaRusso was The Scrappy before the series even aired, largely due to having the audacity of not being either of Daniel's Love Interests from the movies. However, solid, often genuinely funny, writing and a bravura performance from Courtney Henggeler quickly silenced most of the critics.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Carrie Underwood's cameo in Season 4. Ron manages to secure her for a performance at the tournament, where the song she sings (a cover of Survivor's "Moment of Truth", itself the basis for the original film's main theme) is used for a montage of part of the tournament. Many fans were baffled at it.
• Character Rerailment: After The Karate Kid Part II subjected Ali Mills to a classic example of Derailing Love Interests offscreen by revealing that she cheated on Daniel, crashed his car, and broke up with him on prom night, Season 3 returns her to her Nice Girl characterization from the first movie and clarifies that Daniel's account of their breakup was not the full story.
• Common Knowledge:
  • The show is very often described as simply reversing the sides of the first film's hero and villain. In fact, one of the most acclaimed things about it is how it's able to give Johnny a more nuanced and sympathetic portrayal without taking the easy way out and turning Daniel into the bad guy. For the most part, it's closer to Graying Morality than Black-and-White Morality.
  • Many have assumed that Tommy's terminal illness and death in "Take a Right" were inspired by Real Life Writes the Plot to reflect the actual illness and later death of Tommy's actor Rob Garrison. William Zabka has confirmed that in fact Garrison wasn't even sick yet at the time of filming, and this was merely an unfortunate case of Life Imitates Art, with Jon Hurwitz adding that Tommy was originally meant to return in Season 3, appearing to Johnny in a dream sequence, only for this to be scrapped due to Garrison's death.
  • Due to her character arc in Season 3, many fans state that Sam has PTSD, even though this is never explicitly stated. While it’s clear she was traumatized, her symptoms do not only point to PTSD, so it’s just as likely that she was suffering from panic disorder or some other anxiety disorder. And since she doesn’t show any symptoms in the next season, it’s just as fair to say she was just very afraid of Tory in Season 3, and not necessarily suffering from any disorder.
  • Miyagi-Do is seen by some fans and characters in-universe as being an entirely defensive and pacifist system. People forget that Mr. Miyagi was more than willing to use elbow and knee strikes, allow Kreese to horribly bloody his hands by punching through a car window, and employ the occasional Groin Attack. Additionally, while he certainly did not encourage fighting, nor was he at all shy about it when there was no other choice (in fact, he pulled a Big Damn Heroes moment once a movie). As Chozen mentions and demonstrates in Season 3, the style includes debilitating and sometimes even outright lethal techniques.
  • Critics of Carrie Underwood's cameo in Season 4 questioned why she sings a "new" song rather than "You're the Best" like in the tournament montage from the original film. In fact, the song she sings is Survivor's "The Moment of Truth", which was written for and plays over the closing credits of the original movie, along with serving as a basis for the film's recurring leitmotif.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Berating a student for having asthma? Johnny being a Jerkass. Tossing Miguel’s inhaler across the room and saying he doesn’t have asthma anymore? Hilarious.
    • Not only that, one has to assume that this somehow worked, considering that we haven't once seen or heard any mention of Miguel's asthma, ever again.
  • Kreese threatens to cut off a finger from Tory's abusive landlord, followed by a jump cut to Miguel slicing a hot dog.
  • Johnny beating up Cruz right in front of a guard at the detention center, and the guard being completely okay with it.
• Cry for the Devil:
  • Kreese is a despicable man who is a terrible influence on the teens and needs to be taken down, but the full reveal of his backstory and Vietnam War experiences in Season 3 makes it hard not to pity him and mourn the loss of the idealistic young man he once was.
  • Terry Silver getting arrested at the end of Season 5. Silver did deserve to get arrested and exposed as a cheat at that point in the series but the events that led Silver into this position is what makes him sympathetic. After his defeat in 1985 and cleaning up his act, Silver was a successful businessman who engages in only clean business deals and had a loving and supportive girlfriend at his side. Even when Kreese asked for his help, Silver continued to engage in honorable conduct by dissuading Kreese from petty acts of revenge and even teaching students that there is more than just brute force to a fight and to properly use their head. It was not until Kreese pushed Silver's PTSD buttons of the Vietnam War which caused Silver to fall off the deep end, leading to one event after another which ended in his downfall of losing his students, their loyalty and getting arrested. If Kreese never came back into his life, Silver might have lived the rest of his days in relative peace.
• Diagnosed by the Audience:
  • Unlike Hawk, whose mental illness is named in the show, Tory's is left more ambiguous. The general consensus among the fanbase is that she has borderline personality disorder due to her unstable relationships, rapid mood swings, possessiveness, dependency on her relationships with others, impulsivity, self-destructive behaviors, and incredibly short temper.
  • There's something off about Johnny's personality, whether it's his Book Dumb tendencies, his "badass" bravado taken to extreme lengths, or the fact that he gets triggered quite easily and his grudge against Daniel is far more explicit (Daniel at least is able to play it cool when "moving on" from Cobra Kai to some degree before the dojo makes a return). The fact that he struggled to make friends before joining Cobra Kai could implicate he may be on the spectrum.
• Don't Shoot the Message: While most fans agree that the Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse message about Tory's behavior is a good one, it's debatable of whether Sam is the right character to deliver it. Her privileged upbringing makes the line come off as Innocently Insensitive at best and classism at worse. It doesn't help that Sam doesn't appear to know about Tory's financial issues, seeing she met Tory as Aisha's guest at the beach club. Notably, when Miguel, who is also from a poor working-class background and knows about Tory's struggles, delivers the message to Tory in Season 3, it is a bit more effective.
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • Hawk, owing to his being the Ensemble Dark Horse. Like Johnny and Daniel before them, it's not uncommon for the fanbase to downplay Hawk's escalation of his conflict with his former friend Demetri, while putting more emphasis on the moments Demetri is the instigator. The third season ends with Hawk having a Heel Realization, sparking another debate over whether his "redemption" was the result of being Easily Forgiven or not.
  • Tory also gets a certain amount of this in her rivalry with Sam in Seasons 2 and 3, with some fans emphasizing Sam's misdeeds like wrongly accusing Tory of stealing Amanda's wallet or kissing Miguel, while downplaying Tory's severe acts of Disproportionate Retribution. Many have also admitted to siding with Tory mainly because they find Peyton List attractive.
  • Sam gets this to an extent in Season 4 from some fans, with them believing that she is fully justified in bullying and threatening Tory for her past actions, and completely supporting her rather regressive views on mental illness, which is something Sam herself comes to recognize as wrong in Season 5.
  • Terry Silver gets this from some fans in Season 4 due to the fact that he (says he) feels shame for his actions in The Karate Kid Part III and admits they were insane as well as motivated by cocaine. While he agrees to assist Kreese in rebuilding Cobra Kai, he also makes an apology attempt to Daniel that some fans take as sincere. His "betrayal" of Kreese ending up being something that also was a Pay Evil unto Evil moment to many fans too. All this ignores that Silver has also beaten a man half-to-death, framed another one for it, blatantly bribed two judges to win karate tournaments, engaged in child abuse, repeatedly humiliated and needled Daniel, and nearly killed Chozen—not exactly the actions of The Atoner.
  • Mitch gets some of this with fans believing he is fully justified in betraying and selling out the Miyagi-Fangs because they keep calling him "Penis Breath" and because of the perks of the flagship dojo. This ignores that Penis Breath was an Insult of Endearment and Miyagi-Do was capable of providing similar perks such as training snacks. It should also be noted that Mitch never spoke up about his disdain for his nickname and during his Motive Rant, he even admits if it was his decision, he never would have left Cobra Kai in the first place. Overall, him choosing Cobra Kai for the perks and ignoring their crimes shows what a greedy, selfish, and short-sighted jerk he really is.
  • A small minority of fans believe Kenny was fully justified in bullying Anthony in Season 5 for his past actions. While Anthony was a jerk in Season 4, Kenny has surpassed anything Anthony did prior. Kenny's antics include kicking Anthony into the pool with his limbs bound to the point he could've easily drowned (and Anthony's head came close to hitting the concrete) and dunking his head into an unflushed toilet for throwing away a Cobra Kai shirt (which could've gotten Anthony sick).

E-I

• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Moon has a lot of popularity despite or possibly because she hasn’t joined any dojo. Her hilariously naive optimism and genuinely nice personality have made her a standout in a show that often seems to take place in a World of Jerkass.
  • Daryl, the Large Ham announcer during the All Valley tournaments. His commentary is delivered with such hamminess, it’s hilarious.
  • A lot of the background Cobra Kai students such as Doug Rickenberger and Mikey are surprisingly popular, even though they are basically just props who are there to give the group numbers and assist the main characters during fight scenes.
  • Shawn Payne has gained a significant fanbase for his relatively minor role in Season 3, for being a genuinely intimidating Bully who gives Robby a hell of a fight and surprisingly turns out to have his own twisted code of honor in sharp contrast to Kyler. Many fans hope he'll return in a later season and be recruited by Robby for Cobra Kai. Luckily, they got their wish as his brother Kenny was added to the cast and it was hinted Shawn will be brought back soon too.
  • Chozen Toguchi, who returns in Season 3, has been praised for his Character Development into a humbled Miyagi-Do practitioner, a far cry from the man he was during Part II. He returns again in an expanded role in Season 5 and many viewers feel that he stole the show with his hilarious banter with the rest of the cast and excellent action scenes.
  • Devon was quickly well-liked for her Badass Bookworm personality and hilarious chemistry with Johnny.
  • Daniel's cousin Vanessa, played by Ralph Macchio's real-life daughter Julia, has proven to be a big hit every time she appears. In her one appearance in season 4, she's a brilliant child psychologist despite her ditzy demeanour and perfectly calls Daniel and Amanda out on their lacklustre parenting towards Anthony, and in season 5 she's at the center of a hilarious My Sister Is Off-Limits fight between Louie and Anoush.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • Some fans suspected pre-Season 3 that Tory would be revealed to be Ali's daughter, given their similar introductions specifying the spelling of their name ("Ali with an I"/"Tory with a Y"), and hint in the Season 2 finale that Ali would be appearing in Season 3, when it was jossed as Tory's mother is revealed to be bedridden and on dialysis, while Ali returns but has no interaction with Tory.
  • Tory’s parentage in general gets a lot of wild guesses for undisclosed reasons. People have pitched Terry Silver, Julie Pierce, Jessica Andrews, Mike Barnes, and even Johnny as possible parents. Julie, Jessica and Mike were jossed in Seasons 4 and 5 as it's revealed that Tory's mom has a sister while Julie was stated to be a single child, Jessica is Amanda's cousin living in Ohio and perfectly healthy, and Mike is Happily Married with his own family.
  • Miguel's father also gets a lot of wild guesses, with Terry Silver also being pitched as a potential candidate for the "bad man" who got Carmen pregnant with Miguel. Once again, Season 5 disproves all of these theories by confirming that Miguel's father is an original character to the series.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • John Kreese has proven to be an amazing villain for the show. He’s gotten old but he proved that he still has it in his fight with Johnny. Martin Kove still provides an excellent and entertaining performance. Kreese manages to worm his way back to being Cobra Kai’s sensei by the end of Season 2, effectively making him the winner. Kreese has been praised for his role as the Big Bad of Season 2 and Season 3.
  • Hawk for his transformation or "Flipping the script" especially considering what he did was actually pretty good for life; he just took it too far.
  • Robby is a lot more popular after joining Cobra Kai, thanks to his sense of honor, ruthless fighting style and no-bullshit attitude, than he was in Miyagi-Do, where he was seen as a somewhat bland Nice Guy.
  • Terry Silver returns in Season 4 and just as he was the highlight of Part III, Silver is the highlight of the season with his fan favorite theme, how he utterly outclasses everyone else (even Johnny) in a fight, his immense intelligence, and a tremendous performance by Thomas Ian Griffith who perfectly nails Terry's sinister charisma.
  • By the end of Season 4, Kenny's new personality as the typical Cobra Kai bully is frightening and just as fun to watch as his previous nerdy and sweet characterization.
• Fanon:
  • Many fanfic writers and fan artists like to think that Daniel has reading glasses, due to pictures of Ralph Macchio wearing glasses himself. This is likely correct considering Daniel is nearing 60 and very few, if any, adults near 60 do not have presbyopia.
  • Some hold the belief that Kreese's abuse of Johnny extended all the way to sexual abuse, and to a lesser extent that Daniel suffered the same under Terry Silver.
  • Related to Common Knowledge above, many fans claim that Sam has PTSD, due to her story arc in Season 3. Not only is this never stated in the series, but Sam appears to be completely cured by Season 4 (and without therapy on top of that), which is sadly something that actual PTSD sufferers cannot do. While it’s clear she was traumatized by the school brawl, and may be suffering from some kind of anxiety disorder, that does not mean she has PTSD.
  • Some fansites consider Hyan-Woo to be second-in-command of The Fist out of Kim Da-Eun's senseis she brings with her to America. While Hyan-Woo is the most notable out of Kim Da-Eun's senseis and is the most outspoken of them, no dialogue or events suggest this as of Season 5.
  • Some believe that Hector Salazar is part of The Cartel. He is indeed a criminal but as of Season 5, the specifics of what crime he is involved in is unknown.
  • Fan articles and wikis claim that Johnny spent his time after high school in the Air Force before being dishonorably discharged. The most that is revealed about Johnny's past post-Karate Kid and pre-Robby is that he tells Ali in his 20s and 30s, he spent that time partying, going to community college, getting fired from a construction job amongst other trouble he has caused. As of Season 5, nothing is mentioned about Johnny being in the Air Force.
• Fan-Preferred Couple:
  • One look at Archive of Our Own shows that Daniel/Johnny is easily the fandom’s dominant ship, despite Daniel being married to Amanda and Johnny having a thing with Miguel's mom, Carmen. Though this was already present for the films, the ship really exploded after the show introduced the franchise to a whole new generation. Their rivalry is the center of the show, and they share a lot of Ho Yay during both this and the movie. The pairing is also quite popular on Tumblr and other fanfiction websites.
  • Among the younger cast, while the canon Robby/Tory has plenty of fans, the Miguel/Robby and Sam/Tory pairings are more popular in terms of fan content for both Robby and Tory, mainly due to their similarities to Daniel/Johnny. However, in terms of Sam and Miguel, the Miguel/Sam pairing is the most popular.
  • Although the canon Hawk/Moon and Demetri/Yasmine pairings are hardly unpopular, both are dwarfed by the Hawk/Demetri fandom.
• Fight Scene Failure: It's pretty clear that, unlike William Zabka who had continued with karate training for years after the films, Ralph Macchio isn't really any better with martial arts than the average man off the street. Most of Daniel's fight scenes quickly cut away when he's about to land a shot. Thankfully, in the third season, the fight scenes have improved a lot.
• Foe Yay Shipping:
  • Danny and Johnny's long history and rivalry have led quite a few fans to this. The third season makes a joke out of it when the two take a trip together in order to find Robby. When speaking to Shannon, she finds it odd that they're together on this and Johnny delivers this gem:
    Johnny: Whatever it takes to find our son.
  • Tory’s ultimately one-sided obsession with Sam has shades of this in the same manner that Faith had with Buffy.
• Genius Bonus:
  • For '80s Night at the roller rink, Sam dresses as Andie from Pretty in Pink and wants Robby to dress as Duckie, though he goes with the villain Steff instead. Duckie ended up with Andie in the original script, but Executive Meddling forced her to end up with preppie Blane instead. Thus, Sam's costume choices would give them plausible deniability if anyone spotted them together, while Robby's change to them foreshadows his own upcoming character arc.
  • If you're Brazilian and/or a soccer fan, you probably have noticed that, in "Strike First", Miguel's clothes in his third and fourth appearances at the dojo bear a resemblance to the most known design of the Brazilian national soccer team's home uniform (yellow shirt with green collar and green cuffs, and blue shorts). This can be seen as a nod to the fact that Xolo Maridueña's first name is Romário.
  • The painting that Mike Barnes steals from Silver's house in "Head of the Snake" is The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, a Rembrandt that was stolen in 1990 and has a 10 million dollar reward for its safe return. It's the ideal painting he could have stolen: Barnes can easily recoup his financial losses without having to do anything illegal, and Silver wouldn't be able to press charges for the theft without implicating himself.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Tommy, one of Johnny's old friends, is best known for exclaiming "Get him a body bag! Yeah!" during the finals of the 1984 All-Valley Tournament. "Take a Right" concludes with the sickly Tommy's death, and nothing can be done to bring him back even with help from paramedics; thus, he's last seen being zipped up in a bodybag. This is further compounded by the death of his actor, Rob Garrison, months after Season 2 was released; this role was his last.
  • In Season 1 episode 5, there's a scene where Anthony has a back-and-forth boasting match with Armand Zarkarian's son Roland that ends in Anthony proclaiming, "My dad knows karate and could kill your dad!" Come the Season 3 finale, Daniel comes very close to killing Kreese.
  • In the first season, when Johnny is recounting the events of The Karate Kid (1984) to Miguel, he offhandedly says he thinks Tommy got brain damage from the fight with Mr. Miyagi in a moment of levity. When Tommy is reintroduced in the second season, it turns out he has a terminal illness that has spread to his brain.
  • Robby's Trash Talk of Eli's mohawk in Season 1 becomes considerably less humorous in Season 4 when Robby and the other Cobra Kai students give Eli a Traumatic Haircut to destroy his confidence.
  • Kreese's calling a diner waitress "dollface" in Season 2 comes across as him being an out-of-touch, sexist asshole. However, when it's revealed that "dollface" was his pet name for his girlfriend who died while he was fighting in Vietnam, and whom he met while working in a diner, the scene takes on some new, and actually fairly poignant, meaning.
  • In her introductory episode in Season 2, Tory claims to have once used her spiked bracelet to fight off a creepy guy at the mall. In Season 3, it's revealed that Tory has an extremely creepy landlord who tries to sexually extort her under threat of eviction when she can't pay her rent, implying either Tory had to deal with this sort of harassment many times before, or that she made up the story and was instead talking about what she wished she could do to her landlord.
  • In Season 2, which aired only four days before the now infamous final four episodes of Game of Thrones, Daniel and Demetri twice uses analogies based on the show. Post-finale, it is much hard to hear these analogies, especially when Demetri compares Sam to Daenerys Targaryen after the latter's wildly unpopular character turn.
  • Tory saying that lots of people have called her crazy in "All In" hits much differently now that Season 3 has implied that Tory is actually mentally ill. It only gets worse when Sam continues to call her this, despite knowing she is mentally ill.
  • Much of Daniel's speech to the Miyagi-Dos and Cobra Kai turncoats about his time training with Terry Silver, and particularly Robby's cold "Once a Cobra Kai, always a Cobra Kai" remark towards Chris, get pretty uncomfortable after Season 3 ends with Robby joining Cobra Kai, just in time for Kreese to call back in Terry Silver. In retrospect, the scene could be viewed as foreshadowing Robby's impending fall from grace.
  • Sam said, "Everyone has a sob story. Doesn't give you the right to be a bully" in a Season 2 voiceover concerning Tory and their rivalry. Season 3 reveals the extent of Tory's rough home life: having a terminally ill mother, a brother too young to work, no father in the picture, two jobs that barely make ends meet, a lecherous landlord who tries to sexually extort her when she can't pay her rent, and later in Season 4, a selfish aunt who's trying to get custody of Tory's brother to skim off their survivor's benefits. Sam saying it again to Miguel, who knows about Tory's issues, doesn't make it any better. This is hammered in even more when Sam complains to Aisha about Amanda apparently falling for Tory’s “sob story” (though in fairness, she doesn't actually know most of this).
  • In-Universe, Daniel’s tagline, "We Kick the Competition" became this after Robby "kicks the competition" over the railway and almost kills Miguel. It makes his connection to the brawl all too clear, and everyone ostracizes him and Amanda. Amanda even lampshades it.
  • During the meeting where the Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang students agree to team up as one dojo to defeat Cobra Kai, Demetri makes a list on things that still need to be agreed upon, with one of them being a "Sensei Dispute Resolution Protocol". This is less humorous come Season 4 when Daniel and Johnny ultimately dissolve their partnership because they can't resolve their disagreements. The students really did need that protocol.
  • Hawk's Heel–Face Turn at the end of Season 3, which was partly because Cobra Kai expelled Mitch and then attacked him in the house brawl, comes across as rather sad in Season 5 when Mitch doesn't extend the same loyalty to him and betrays him and the rest of the Miyagi-Fangs by rejoining Cobra Kai for all of their free stuff.
  • The jokes about people mistaking Miguel for Mexican rather than Ecuadorian become this when it's revealed his father lives in Mexico City and Miguel runs away to find him there at the end of Season 4.
  • Amanda's comment at the Christmas party with Daniel, Johnny and Ali that she had her head up her ass in high school hits differently when it's revealed that she missed her graduation after being arrested for smashing up her math tutor's car with a baseball bat with her inside it.
  • Daniel's joke to Amanda at the country club about wanting to throw the spoiled, video game-addicted Anthony into the pool in Season 1 becomes this when Kenny and the Cobra Kais trap Anthony into pool rings before kicking him into the lazy river at the water park. Anthony's head almost hitting the hard tiles and his body lifelessly floating down the lazy river demonstrates this scene was NOT Played for Laughs.
  • A deleted scene in Season 4 has Mitch fighting in the All-Valley but losing against an opponent. Johnny is still proud enough to call Mitch by his real name but thought his real name was "Mike". When Mitch corrects Johnny, he gets his old nickname "Penis Breath" back. This hits harder, despite Mitch's Butt-Monkey status, as Season 5 has Mitch defect to Cobra Kai and sell out Miyagi-Fang on their plan to expose Silver partly because everyone calls him Penis Breath.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: When the Nerd Trio (Miguel, Eli, and Demetri) is introduced in the series together, they are all friendless losers in high school sitting alone in the lunch room while they watch the Girl Trio (Sam, Moon, Yasmine) display their popularity by hanging out with more of the rich, popular crowd — including Kyler and Brucks. Little did they know, those three boys would go out with each of the three girls, and become popular among their peers in their own right.
• He Really Can Act:
  • Ralph Macchio and William Zabka have always been good actors, but their status in pop culture thanks to The Karate Kid (1984) and the frequent Adam Westing of their iconic roles belie the fact that both of them really do have some serious dramatic chops, which have earned them praise from numerous critics and fans alike.
  • Jacob Bertrand and Peyton List's superb performances as troubled teenagers surprised many viewers who were familiar with their more simplistic roles on various Disney Channel projects.
  • Some fans who were borderline about Sam in the first two seasons due to her romantic entanglements were won over by Mary Mouser's performance depicting Sam's struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder in Season 3.
  • In the arcade fight in Season 3, when Hawk breaks Demetri's arm, fans praised Gianni DeCenzo's performance as it felt genuine that he is not only hurt from the incident, he is also heartbroken that his childhood friend is assaulting him, no matter how much he begs.
  • While Xolo Maridueña had proven himself to be a strong actor, Season 3 gives him plenty of opportunities to show off his dramatic chops due to Miguel being unable to fight, with particular attention for moments like Miguel dressing down Johnny for not working harder to keep his students from siding with Kreese, protesting when Johnny refuses to let him participate in the next All-Valley due to his injuries (motivating Johnny to go to the town hall to appeal), or his speech (with Sam's help) to save the All-Valley.
  • After hamming it up all through Part III, Thomas Ian Griffith, who hadn't acted since 2007, delivers an excellent and (most of the time) much subtler performance as Terry Silver in Season 4 and 5, providing him with a chilling charisma and showing Terry as both an unstoppable physical and intellectual opponent, and even more of a danger than Kreese while also giving him a certain degree of humanity as shown by his genuine affection for Kenny and, to a lesser extent than Kreese, Tory.
  • A lot of vitriol was passed towards Tanner Buchanan's acting in the first three seasons. However, many praised his performance in Season 4, especially the final scene he had where Robby comes to terms with seeing Kenny go off the deep end and realizing how far he himself had fallen. It's a scene with a lot of raw emotion and he carried it out brilliantly. Season 5 continues this characterization, as he shows much greater maturity and wisdom throughout.
  • Martin Kove fully seized the opportunity to show off his acting chops in his return to the role of John Kreese, demonstrating both Kreese's charisma and manipulative tendencies that explain how he was able to get his hooks into Johnny to begin with and what a dangerous threat he is. He also gives the character real humanity, making it painfully clear that Kreese is not a monster, but a seriously damaged man who lived a hard life and never got the help he desperately needed, and who honestly cared about Johnny in his own way and later feels the same about Tory, turning a character who'd spent decades as a one-dimensional bully into a complex and sympathetic, yet still evil figure.
  • Dallas Dupree Young certainly has made his mark as of one the youngest actors in the series, able to go from a cowardly bullied victim to a full-on vicious brute under Cobra Kai. Particularly in the locker room scene with Anthony when he fully embraces the Cobra Kai creed, unleashing his rage as he beats him up; the fact that he's so terrifying when only in middle school should give the impression that Dallas really did give it all at such a young age.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In How I Met Your Mother, Barney Stinson had a habit of being a Misaimed Fandom to the movies he watched, believing that the villains of the stories are actually the heroes and vice versa (e.g. crying when the Terminator died and scheming to crawl through vents "just like the bad guy [John McClane] in Die Hard"). One noteworthy example is him viewing Johnny as the real Karate Kid and hating Daniel, with both William Zabka and Ralph Macchio appearing on the show to meet Barney, and Zabka lamenting being Typecast as bad guys and appreciating that Barney is one of the few people who likes his character. Cobra Kai seems to be depicting things the way Barney saw them, with Johnny being the main character this time.
  • "Daniel is the Real Bully", a YouTube parody that flips the perspective on the story and tries to make Daniel the bad guy of the first movie. It's safe to say the writers gave it a watch because Johnny's retelling of what happened in the first movie late in the first season isn't much different.
  • In The Karate Kid Part III, when Terry Silver got humiliated by Mr. Miyagi, he ranted, "You think this is the end of it, old man? I'm gonna open Cobra Kai dojos all over this valley! HELL, I MIGHT EVEN TEACH FOR FREE!!! FROM NOW ON, WHEN PEOPLE SAY KARATE AROUND HERE, ALL THEY'LL MEAN IS COBRA KAI KARATE! JOHN KREESE'S KARATE! YOU WON'T EVEN BE A MEMORY!" Daniel fires back, "Yes, he [Miyagi] will! You won't!" Not only is Daniel-san now the one teaching karate for free, but almost no one remembers that Cobra Kai got banned at all from the All-Valley to begin with.
    Sue: Mr. Lawrence, what is your relationship to this Terry Silver?
    Johnny Lawrence: Ma'am, I have no idea who that even is.
  • Demetri's already hilariously inept attempts at flirting with Yasmine in Season 1 and her disgusted reaction become even funnier after they become a couple in Season 3. Watch Sam and Miguel catch him making out with Yasmine, then remember something he said in the first season.
    Demetri: [to Eli and Miguel] "I don't care if Yasmine is the meanest girl at school. I'd kill both of you just to get her to spit in my face."
  • When Sam and Miguel catch Demetri making out with Yasmine, Demetri straight up calls Yasmine "Cruella" and asks her why she's not off killing puppies. That same year, Paul Walter Hauser (Stingray) played Horace in Disney's Cruella (in fact, part of the reason why he couldn't return for Season 3 was because he was busy shooting Cruella).
  • Miguel’s grandma says that the Dodgers will probably screw off in the playoffs. Season 3 was filmed before (but came out just a few months after) the Dodgers won their first World Series in years.
  • Johnny and Daniel listening to REO Speedwagon in the car. Are they talking about the song, or the best waifu?
    Johnny: You like Speedwagon?
    Daniel: What kind of man doesn't?
  • The Japanese dub has a couple of this, considering the voice actors of the mains, mainly Takeshi Kusao, Daniel's voice actor:
    • The whole plot of the series is quite hilarious by itself, considering Daniel's Japanese voice actor voiced Trunks, while Johnny's one, Eiji Hanawa, voiced Jiren. Trunks's father, Vegeta, antagonize and fights against Jiren in during the Tournament of Power in Dragon Ball Super.
    • In the series, Daniel is a big fan of Game of Thrones. Once again, Eiji Hanawa (Johnny) previously voiced Jon Snow in the Japanese dub of that show.
    • Also, the whole premise about the show is quite hilarious considering that Kusao has voiced Ky Kiske, a young, idealistic warrior who still harbors some grudges with an old rival from his past, Sol Badguy, at least in Xrd and Strive. The main difference here, however, is that Ky handles the whole situation in a more or less tactful way, compared with Daniel.
  • In One of Us is Lying, Annalisa Cochrane's (Yasmine) character dates a character played by Barrett Carnahan (Young Kreese), leading some fans to jokingly suggest the pairing as a Crack Ship.
  • In Pulpo Johnny tells Daniel that Kreese is gone from Cobra Kai. Daniel sarcastically asks if he's dead again, saying that he hopes that it was an open casket funeral so they could check his pulse. Come Head of the Snake, Kreese escapes from jail by faking his death, demonstrating the ability to slow down his pulse.
  • A Deleted Scene in Season 1 involves Johnny talking down on a BJJ instructor when he tries poaching his students to learn karate, insulting BJJ as just rolling around on a mat and hugging each other. In Season 5, Johnny almost loses an MMA fight as his opponent uses a BJJ-based hold to choke him out. What makes this more interesting is out of universe, William Zabka used to be a wrestler and had no karate experience during the filming of the original Karate Kid.
• Hollywood Homely:
  • In the first episode, Johnny is treated as unattractive, even though William Zabka is actually quite good-looking and really only needed a shave and wardrobe update. Once he shapes up his life, he's seen as attractive by many women, even getting 4 dates over the course of one scene. Granted, they didn't work out, but given how limited his dating profile was, they must have found him attractive enough to want to go out with him.
  • A lot of young characters mockingly call Daniel "grandpa" and some jerkasses imply that he forms an Ugly Guy, Hot Wife dynamic with Amanda, except Ralph Macchio is one of the most famous cases of Older Than They Look who, as of 2022 is in his sixties yet looks and sounds like a man (and a pretty attractive one at that) in his early to mid forties.
  • Invoked with Eli, who is practically treated as a circus freak by his peers due to his lip scar despite the scar not being that bad and Jacob Bertrand being relatively good-looking. Once he "flips the script" and becomes Hawk, he gains a lot more confidence and manages to date one of the most popular girls in school.
  • Tory Nichols is meant to give off a 'trailer park' vibe, generally by giving her attire like flannel shirts, torn jeans, etc, but its execution sometimes leaves much to be desired since Peyton List is a 'glamor girl' more along the lines of someone like Yasmine and the farthest thing from Tory.
• Ho Yay:
  • In addition to all the Foe Yay Shipping, Daniel and Johnny have many moments of this even in Season 5 when they're firmly on the same side, such as Johnny running off to Cobra Kai's new dojo with Chozen to beat up Silver as revenge for him beating up Daniel. A particular highlight is when Silver congratulates Johnny and his "partner" on their great achievement. Johnny naturally assumes he's talking about Carmen being pregnant with his child, when Silver was actually referring to him and Daniel qualifying for the Sekai Taikai. And then there's this line (of course, Kreese is actually talking about Ali, but that hasn't stopped the shippers from latching on to it):
    Kreese: [Johnny] didn't lose because of that crane crap. There isn't a kick on earth that could've stopped Johnny Lawrence in his prime. The reason why he lost was because he thought he was in love.
  • Hawk and Demetri's long friendship has led a lot of fans to this. Their conflict in Seasons 2 and 3 often comes across as a spat between two jilted ex-lovers, and the two have a very enthusiastic reunion and team-up when Hawk makes his Heel–Face Turn. After Hawk's 10-Minute Retirement in Season 4, Demetri convinces him to return to karate by giving him a very passionate speech about how important their friendship is. At the All-Valley final, when Robby and Hawk ditch their gis to fight shirtless, Robby throws his to his girlfriend Tory, while Hawk throws his to Demetri, who seems very confused by this gesture.
  • Kreese and Silver have also have a lot of this, going back to being old friends and having fought in the war together. And there's this exchange in "Then Learn Fly" which wouldn't sound out of place in a queer coming of age movie:
    Kreese: [The All Valley Tournament] will be the perfect venue to show the whole world that our way is the right way.
    (Silver hesitates)
    Kreese: What?
    Silver: It's my father. He wants me to take over his company. He said if I don't, he's cutting me out of the inheritance.
    Kreese: But what about the dojo? We... We were just about to open it.
    Silver: You will. I can still pay my half of the rent. Even more. I just won't be able to be there.
    Kreese: Yeah, but I can't do this without you! (beat) Terry, I can't do this without you. We started this together. We gotta see it through together.
    Silver: Maybe someday. My father wants me to put all this karate and Vietnam behind me. But I don't know if I can ever go back to a normal life.
    Kreese: Remember, fear does not exist. You can get through anything. You know why? 'Cause you got me.
• Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: Along with the 'Lawrusso' nickname, Daniel/Johnny shippers like to call them 'Karate Husbands' while Kreese/Terry Silver shippers go with 'Cobra Husbands'. For the younger cast, there is 'Binary Boyfriends' or 'Binary Brothers' for Demetri/Hawk.
• I Knew It!: When the official Twitter account of the series posted a tweet asking "Anyone have a spare hair tie?", fans speculated Terry Silver would return in Season 4, considering that Kreese's last scene in season 3 was a flashback of him freeing Silver from the POW camp, and Silver pledging his everlasting loyalty to Kreese, then Kreese giving someone a phone call saying "Hey, long time." They were proven right a day later.

J-N

• Jerks Are Worse Than Villains:
  • While villains like Kreese, Silver, Hawk and Tory are seen as entertaining in spite of their violent actions due to their badass fight scenes and great performances from their actors, the most hated characters on the show by far are Anthony LaRusso and Counselor Blatt, whose only crimes are being a lazy Spoiled Brat and an incompetent school administrator who is too obsessed with political correctness respectively, as they lack the traits that make the villains so much fun to watch. Further proving this point, Anthony actually became more popular after becoming an outright bully, since this at least gave his character some depth and made him more interesting, as well as setting up a well-received redemption arc.
  • Sam and Tory. While Tory's crimes include starting the school brawl that resulted in Miguel breaking his spine, attempting to slice Sam's face open with a spiked bracelet, goading Hawk into breaking Demetri's arm and breaking into the LaRussos' home to lead a violent gang assault against all of the Miyagi-Dos and Eagle Fangs, she still has many fans who attempt to justify these actions. Meanwhile, Sam is more hated by fans for things like mistakenly accusing Tory of stealing her mom's wallet, kissing Tory's boyfriend while drunk, and making fun of Tory's embarrassing job as a children's entertainer.
• Love to Hate:
  • Kyler Park is an unrepentant Jerkass lacking any of the redeeming qualities or Sympathetic POVs that nearly all the other antagonists of the series have. He's also a hilariously stupid and over-the-top dudebro who swings back and forth between being a Dirty Coward and actually being able to back up his talk. So his presence in the series is often considered enjoyable. The fact that almost all his fights (notable exceptions include his fight against Chris) end with him getting his ass handed to him helps.
  • Kim Da-Eun, due to her ruthlessness surpassing that of Kreese and Silver combined, as well as her animosity and abuse she has for Tory. However, she's also played by the beautiful Alicia Hannah-Kim, and is a formidable trained fighter in her own right.
  • Mitch, also known as "Penis Breath", becomes this after he betrays the Miyagi-Fangs for petty reasons far surpassing any Cobra Kai character making a Heel–Face Turn or Face–Heel Turn throughout the entire series.
• Memetic Badass:
  • Hector Salazar, due to his strong resemblance to the GigaChad.
  • Chozen, especially in the fifth season. Some fans joke about how he carried the entire fifth season.
  • Bert has developed an ironic following claiming he could solo every other character in the series, despite being one of the weakest fighters among the teenage karate students.^note Funnily enough, his actor is the only one who is actually a black belt in karate.
• Memetic Loser:
  • Kyler Park, who loves to establish his macho persona with his tough-guy talk and bully those he considers weak, only to get his ass kicked by the people he underestimated. First, Johnny beats the hell out of him and his gang real good, followed by Miguel — twice (the latter of which he was still recovering from his injuries, as Tory points out). Then, Eli shuts him down in the All-Valley, and as the former foreshadows, Demetri kicks his ass in the Season 5 Final Battle as well. It reaches new lows when even the much younger Kenny surpasses him as Cobra Kai's top male student in Season 5, explicitly shown when he proves himself to be the "better leader" during an exercise.
  • Anthony LaRusso, being a spoiled brat with little to no interest in karate despite being part of the LaRusso family — at least until Season 5 when him being bullied by Kenny gets completely out of hand. And then there's his Embarrassing Nickname that his peers give him ("LaPusso"), which the internet has taken notice of.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "[Insert illness here] does not exist in this dojo!" ^ExplanationJohnny throwing Miguel's inhaler across the room and claiming he no longer has asthma caused YouTube commenters to lump asthma in with fear and the other things that don't exist in the Cobra Kai dojo.
  • Johnny's loud, abrupt "QUIET!"s has become one in internet conversations.
  • "Demetri and Eli, binary brothers!"^ExplanationDemetri sings this after mentioning a contest he and Hawk won at computer camp. It has become a popular clip for video edits.
    • “Cool it with the nerd shit!”^ExplanationHawk's response to the above quote has become a popular template for memes in its own right
  • A lot of comparisons have been made between Johnny and Robby's showdown in the Season 3 finale and the climactic duel between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith.
  • "Daniel LaRacist"^ExplanationAfter Daniel uploads a commercial for his Miyagi-Do dojo on YouTube, people in the comments section begin accusing him of cultural appropriation and calling him "Daniel LaRacist." The nickname is sometimes used jokingly by fans when comparing Daniel unfavorably to another character.
  • "Don’t you think some of what Sensei Kreese is teaching us feels wrong?"^ExplanationA popular meme template with the second panel being an image of Kreese captioned with an opinion the meme maker disagrees with
  • "Forgive me, Father."^ExplanationA popular joke regarding the scene in Season 3 where Bobby leg sweeps Johnny after the latter drunkenly interrupts his church service is to have God or Jesus give Bobby permission for the act after he says the aforementioned line.
  • Kreese is Thanos.^ExplanationWhen Daniel walks into Cobra Kai and finds Kreese, Kreese taunts that they will fight one day, as "It's inevitable." When they do fight in the Season 3 finale, Kreese says, "I told you: this was inevitable." Parallels between this line and Thanos's "I am inevitable" in Avengers: Endgame did not go unnoticed.◊
  • "Robby Keene vs. Filing Cabinet" ^Explanation At the end of Season 3, Johnny refuses to fight Robby and easily dodges all his attacks, but accidentally gets Robby to charge headfirst into a cabinet. It is common to take a picture of Robby from that scene and caption it as some concept or person, then label an ordinary filing cabinet (not the one from the scene) as something that beats the first thing.
  • "And I am gasoline".^ExplanationChozen's Badass Boast from Season 5 went viral, to the point that some people have started using “Gasoline” as Chozen's badass Fan Nickname.
• Misaimed Fandom:
  • Some seem to be under the impression that the viewer is supposed to agree with all of Johnny's views. While this is obviously true in some situations, Johnny has also said several things that are clearly not true and are just pure ignorance or selective memory on his part, such as that he doesn't believe in the existence of asthma.
  • Related to the above, several American conservative viewers have praised the series for being "anti-woke" and praised Johnny as a return to the Good Old Ways, seemingly not realizing that, while there clearly is some merit to his philosophy, Johnny's inability to adapt to the modern world more often than not makes him a laughingstock and Butt-Monkey, and his teachings have caused more pain and suffering than they have alleviated (something which Johnny himself is all too aware of). The show is, if anything, refreshingly apolitical beyond a little light ribbing toward either side and none of the principal cast, villains included, are written to be a Straw Character.
  • Likewise, a few fans love the way the Cobra Kai crew transforms themselves from bullied kids to a Badass Crew and ignore the fact they become almost as bad as the bullies who picked on them, fight dirty during the tournament, and that by the end of the season, even Johnny isn't pleased with how they turned out.
  • Some fans like to say that Johnny's constant insults to his class in Season 1 were a good thing because they weeded out the weaker students. The job of a martial arts instructor is not to weed out weak students, it's to make every one of their students the best that they can be. This is even pointed out in the show, as Aisha claims the quitters were a bunch of pussies that Cobra Kai is better off without, only for Johnny to admit he was wrong to drive them away. Not to mention that one of the students Johnny "weeded out" was Demetri, who proves to be a very capable fighter once Daniel becomes his sensei and is willing to show the patience in training him that Johnny couldn't.
  • Fans frequently argue over which sensei and dojo is supposed to be the heroic one and which is supposed to be the antagonist, when the whole point of the show is that it strives for a Gray-and-Grey Morality where neither Johnny / Cobra Kai or Daniel / Miyagi-Do is completely right or wrong. Ralph Macchio and William Zabka even made a video discussing this and pointed out the only true villain in the series is Kreese (and later Silver).
  • The verbal and physical abuse of Stingray in Season 4 is treated as unnecessary and cruel by the story, but many fans see his treatment as an example of Take That, Scrappy!, due to his status as a Base-Breaking Character. For some, this even includes his brutal beating at the hands of Terry Silver. This is despite the fact that bullying as a whole is treated as unacceptable in the series, regardless of who's receiving it. Still, many fans think Stingray is totally deserving of being bullied, despite his biggest flaws being social awkwardness, his child-like interests, and being a lackluster fighter... which are traits often used as an excuse for bullying.
  • Kim Da-Eun's torture session for Tory is meant to be a showcase of the cruel and sadistic nature of the former and a No Good Deed Goes Unpunished moment for the latter. However, some fans have come to treat this as Laser-Guided Karma for Tory due to her previous misdeeds, such attacking Sam with a spiked bracelet and goading Hawk to break Demetri's arm (Mitch was also goading Hawk into doing so and never faced a similar "comeuppance" during his supposed Heel–Face Turn). This is all despite Tory having come to realize how Cobra Kai is a toxic, corrupting influence on her and wanting to be better by trying to de-escalate tensions at the waterpark between the rival dojos, keep Devon from going down a similar dark path, and eventually confessing the truth about the rigged tournament match to Sam. The only reason she even stayed at Cobra Kai long enough to suffer under Kim's "training" despite learning about Silver's bribery was her misplaced trust in Kreese, which she had also realized was wrong.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Kreese has always been an Ax-Crazy Social Darwinist, but he crosses the line in the Season 3 finale when he attempts to murder Johnny and Daniel when they confront him after the house brawl. It's at this point that he loses any claim to being a Well-Intentioned Extremist looking out for his students, and it's clear that he is just a brutal psychopath who'll do anything to get his own way.
  • Kyler was a typical Jerk Jock bully in Season 1, but while his fellow Hate Sink Yasmine sought to redeem herself in Season 3, he proved that he was irredeemable by deliberately targeting Miguel's back while he was still recovering from his life-threatening spinal injury and subsequent paralysis in the house brawl. This shows that unlike the other Cobra Kai members, who are troubled teenagers whose violent tendencies are mostly the result of Kreese's bad influence, Kyler takes genuine pleasure from inflicting pain on other people.
  • Captain Turner's actions throughout Vietnam fell strictly under I Did What I Had to Do, until he told Kreese that his girlfriend was dead just to demoralize him so he could kill him to save his own life. On top of this, he spent his entire captivity deferring his authority, saying the chain of command doesn't exist while they're prisoners. The moment he realizes he's safe - after taking absolute joy in trying to kill Kreese for putting them in that situation - he orders Kreese to save him from the snake pit. Sure, it's a Start of Darkness and What You Are in the Dark moment for Kreese himself, but it's hard to not see his willingness to kill Turner despite both being saved by the cavalry as a well-deserved Pay Evil unto Evil moment.
  • Terry Silver is an unstable psychopath who tortured Daniel LaRusso during the events of The Karate Kid Part III. However, he seems to genuinely regret his actions upon his return 34 years later, his betrayal of Kreese is inflicted upon an Asshole Victim, and the rest of his actions, including beating up Johnny and bribing the All Valley referee could be rationalised as being desperate and ruthlessly pragmatic steps to ensure the survival of his business. However, he clearly crosses the line when he burns down Mike Barnes's furniture store simply because Barnes tipped off Silver's lawyer's name and phone number to Daniel. This wholly unnecessary act of Disproportionate Retribution, when all he had to do to safeguard his reputation and livelihood was have his lawyer destroy all copies of his and Barnes's contract, stands out as cruel and petty and proves that Silver truly takes sadistic pleasure in destroying people's lives. Even worse, when Barnes does call him out for it in the season finale, Silver shrugs it off as nothing.
  • While Kenny's brutal swirly on Anthony is a bit understandable to some degree (as he's still on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against his former bully), the same cannot be said with the Cobra Kais that accompany him, particularly Edwin and Big Red. The two of them have no prior connection to Anthony whatsoever, so there's no reason for them to put Anthony's life in danger other than For the Evulz.
• Narm:
  • "I'm coming for you, bitch!" from Season 2. While it does show how scary Tory can be when she's angry, her breaking into the office and hijacking the loudspeaker can come off to some viewers as over the top and cartoonish.
  • Sam's confrontation with Tory in Season 4, especially when she tells Tory "I'm coming for you bitch!", the same thing Tory said in the school fight, is very hard to take seriously.
• Narm Charm:
  • Hawk's over-the-top badass persona is completely ridiculous, but it also works perfectly at face value because he does possess the viciousness and skill to back it up, rather than going the expected route with his character. Him strutting into the ring with one of Kyler's goons when they attempt to join Cobra Kai and shedding his shirt to reveal his massive tattoo would be goofy... if he didn't deliver a savagely violent Curb-Stomp Battle to said bully and leave Kyler utterly terrified of the "loser" he went in there to pick a fight with.
  • “Eagle Fang”. Bizarre, ridiculous name? Yes, Demetri even lampshades it. Does it fit Johnny, and does he make it work as a result? Yes again.
  • Demetri telling off Tory after she threatens former Cobra Kai member Hawk for his decision to turn coat. It should be ridiculous, but it works, not only because it continues to show Demetri's newfound confidence, but it's also a perfect way to show his friendship with Hawk getting on the mend, and the perfect response a confident-but-socially-awkward teen would give. The fact that she was one of the people who actively goaded Hawk into breaking his arm during the arcade fight, and that he's surrounded by friends while she walks out alone, makes it even more awesome.
  • The entire series pretty much runs on this. Taking the Serious Business nature of karate in the Valley as it was in the films, it's pretty much a Genre Throwback to the original films, effectively making it an eighties work with modern production values. And it is glorious.

O-S

• One-Scene Wonder:
  • The unnamed woman Johnny meets in the bar who he instantly seems to click with due to her basically being a girl version of him. Unfortunately for her, Johnny happens to overhear Carmen's boyfriend talking to a friend about how he’s just using Carmen, and he quickly forgets about the woman he’s just met to go put the asshole in his place.
  • Poor Daniel in the Season 2 episode "The Moment of Truth". Once Aisha's mother (played by Kim "Tootie" Fields) started expounding on the awesomeness of Cobra Kai, he had no hope of getting Miyagi-Do into the minds of the other men at that table.
  • From the same episode, the fisherman that Daniel meets on the beach who reminds him of Mr. Miyagi and gives him some great advice for how to recruit students for his dojo. A lot of fans were just as emotional as Daniel was at meeting a Replacement Goldfish for his late mentor.
  • Rickenberger started out as this in the season two finale, being a nameless Elite Mook who managed to hold his own against the strongest main characters and seemed to enjoy fighting just as much as Hawk. Knocking a teacher out cold certainly left an impression too.
  • The woman who yells, "She was tramping around with that other girl's boyfriend!" (about Sam) at the start of Season 3 in a PTA meeting. Just a dead-on perfect impression of a nosy, trashy, judgmental, Jerry Springer-watching Karen.
  • Dee Snider makes an appearance As Himself in Season 3, rocking so hard that Miguel's paralysis is cured.
  • Ali Mills comes back for two episodes in Season 3 and single-handedly does what the entire cast couldn't for the course of three entire seasons: finish the animosity between Johnny and Daniel.
  • The shaken victor of the first Involuntary Battle to the Death in the Season 3 finale Vietnam flashbacks.
  • Aunt Kandace in Season 4 has only 2 minutes of screen time, yet she's a rather chilling Shadow Archetype for Tory, quickly becoming one of the show's most despised Hate Sink(s) with her threats to take away Tory's brother once their mother dies to skim off their survival benefits being the starting point for Tory's well-received Heel–Face Turn.
  • Principal Fitzpatrick became one in his lone scene in Season 4 by being a Reasonable Authority Figure who actually holds the bullies at West Valley Middle School accountable, unlike the incompetent staff at West Valley High.
• One True Threesome: Those that like the Foe Yay Shipping between Daniel and Johnny but hate the idea of Daniel cheating on Amanda just go for this option, noting Amanda gets along with Johnny better than Daniel does.
• Play-Along Meme: In Season 2, Daniel's commercial for the Miyagi-Do dojo gets him accused of cultural appropriation by angry internet trolls who even nickname him "Daniel LaRacist", despite Daniel being one of the least racist characters on the show when compared to the likes of Johnny and Kreese. Cue fans using the nickname themselves and ironically calling him racist while upholding Cobra Kai as a pillar of progressiveness and political correctness.
• Portmanteau Couple Name:
  • Johnny Lawrence + Daniel LaRusso = LawRusso
  • Johnny Lawrence + Carmen Diaz = Jarmen/Carnny
  • Sam LaRusso + Miguel Diaz = Samiguel/Samguel
  • Robby Keene + Miguel Diaz = Kiaz
  • Sam LaRusso + Tory Nichols = Lanichols/Samtory
  • Robby Keene + Tory Nichols = Keenry
• Replacement Scrappy: One of the initial reasons that Amanda was disliked was because she wasn't Ali, Kumiko or Jessica.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Demetri's newfound confidence and getting more into karate in Season 3 caused more people to warm up to him, as this Character Development caused the aspects of his character that were frequently criticized (his pessimism, frequent whining) to decrease. He even managed to impress Yasmine of all people.
  • Ali had been the target of ire from the fandom after the way she dumped Daniel offscreen in The Karate Kid Part II and it was increased following Johnny's recollection of their relationship in this series making her come across as callous to him in the original film. Her appearances in Season 3 made her a popular character once again after she proves herself to be the same Nice Girl she was depicted as in the original film, reveals that Daniel and Johnny's memories weren't wholly accurate, and helps end the animosity between the two rivals.
  • A lot of fans who didn't like Sam in the first two seasons warmed up to her in Season 3. Likely helped by the fact that Sam's primary storyline up to that point — the Love Dodecahedron involving herself, Miguel, Robby, and Tory — takes a noticeable backseat, many appreciated how her trauma arc gave her some vulnerability and weakness, and appreciated how she learned from her mistakes in previous seasons, such as directly standing up for Demetri when Hawk is bullying him (in contrast to her earlier Bystander Syndrome with regard to Yasmine's bullying of Aisha), standing up for Miguel both figuratively (defending Miguel to her father when he catches them making out in the dojo rather than trying to hide their relationship) and literally (stepping in front of Miguel when Robby tries to attack him), and taking a proactive stance to try and resolve the dojo rivalry through an alliance of Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang.
  • Downplayed with Amanda, who was not well-liked by some thanks to how she blamed Daniel and Sam for all of the problems caused by the dojo rivalry, and also the fact that she is an entirely new character and not one of Daniel's original love interests from the movies. As she comes to fully ally herself with Daniel against Cobra Kai, strikes up unusual but heartwarming friendships with Johnny and Tory, and becomes more sympathetic and nuanced, she has gained much more popularity.
  • Anthony LaRusso is a really unusual example. He's still a Spoiled Brat, and is now a bully, but at least he gets some screen time and characterization, which he hadn't really gotten before. As the season goes on and he actually starts facing consequences for his actions, he shows remorse and undergoes Character Development, while his parents begin to acknowledge their flaws in raising him. Ironically, being more of a Jerkass turned him into a more interesting and watchable character. By Season 5, he is now fully aware that what he did is wrong and is growing more mature, as well as becoming an important part of the combined dojo.
  • While Tory always had her fans, there was a large part of the audience who hated her for how violent and irrational she came across as, especially when she was doing it at the risk of her family. However, she managed to win many over in Season 4 after her Character Development kicks in, leading to her growing more reasonable and finally putting her family's wellbeing above her pride, to the point where Sam begins antagonizing Tory more than the other way around. Her growing friendship with Amanda, from which said character development was kickstarted, was also well-received.
  • Many of Stingray's detractors began to appreciate him in Season 5 due to his efforts to start connecting with other adults, him feeling an immense amount of guilt for his role in helping Silver gain more power, and ultimately joining the protagonists and helping them take down Cobra Kai before admitting his lie under duress to the police.
  • While Robby got a lot of flak during earlier seasons, Season 5 solidifies that he is truly on the side of good once more, still a fierce fighter when necessary, but also with a sense of compassion and respect for Johnny and Daniel.
• Romantic Plot Tumor:
  • The teenage romances of Sam with Robby, and Miguel with Tory, in Season 2 fall into this, especially when Robby and Tory are merely serving as Sam's and Miguel's respective rebounds, the relationships are meant to be temporary, and the love entanglements take up too much screentime. Not only that, but the school brawl that ends the season is a product of this romance drama, which lasted all of five episodes, and happens because Sam and Tory fight over Miguel and Robby and Miguel fight over Sam, and the relationships between Sam and Robby / Miguel and Tory were summer flings that lasted no more than a month or two tops. It comes off like the writers, rather than try to flesh out the rivalries in a more complex way, went with a more basic "two boys fight over a girl / two girls fight over a boy" approach. Many considered Season 3 a step up because the romantic entanglements got placed on the backburner.
  • Miguel and Sam fall into this hard in Season 5 especially when compared to Tory and Robby who, even if you don't particularly like their pairing, are given far more to work with in terms of a story arc. To wit, Sam needles Miguel for leaving for Mexico without standing by her corner in her match with Miguel pointing out how ridiculous it is for her to bring that up in the situation he's in. The fallout from that conversation plus some introspection from Sam leads to her putting the relationship on hold. While there could've been some solid storytelling from Sam feeling the pressure of all the directions she's been pulled in over the course of the show, she instead just reverts to her initial Season 3 personality (albeit less traumatized) and Miguel back to being awkward around her. This becomes worse once Miguel settles his beef with Robby as it means he no longer has any real storyline outside of his issues with Sam, and Sam doesn't pick up her issues with Tory until the penultimate episode of the season (where more of the relationship drama happens to rear its head). It just comes off as the writers having absolutely no idea what to do with the two for a significant portion of the season.
• Rule of Cool: Being thirty years out of practice, there's no way Mike should be able to last more than two or three seconds against Chozen, the greatest living fighter in the franchise. However, the opportunity of seeing the villains of the second and third movie fight each other is too awesome for the writers to pass up.
• Salvaged Story:
  • A lot of the problems with the All Valley Tournament in The Karate Kid Part III were fixed in the Season 1 finale:
    • The insane rule in Part III that the defending champion only has to fight in the final round (which was clearly done to skip a tournament montage) is reverted back to the original film's rules. As such, Xander Stone is shown fighting in every round until he's eliminated by Miguel in the semi-final. Season 4 lampshades it with Johnny calling the rule bullshit.
    • The referee at the All Valley is less lenient on blatant rule-breaking. Hawk is immediately disqualified when he dislocates Robby's shoulder between rounds, as opposed to the previous referee, who let Mike Barnes punch Daniel in the face between rounds. It's also acknowledged that Barnes's shenanigans were illegal, and led to Cobra Kai being blackballed from professional competition while Barnes himself was banned from participating in any karate tournament ever again. Additionally, this series shows that Silver has no problem bribing the referee, which implies that he may have done so during Part III as well.
  • Season 3 wastes no time assuring us that, despite not seeing it last season, Cobra Kai faced genuine consequences for the school brawl. Tory was expelled and only avoided jail time due to being her mother's caretaker, Aisha's parents moved away in shame, and Stingray isn't allowed around kids.
  • For those not fond of the teenage love square that dominated Season 2, Season 3 took a step back from that by having Sam and Miguel resolve their UST while setting Robby up to date Tory, and also hooking Demetri up with Yasmine.
  • Many fans found the story of the Miyagi family inventing karate to be too ridiculous in Part 2, Season 3 all but confirms that the story was just a family legend.
  • After all the complaints about Hawk being hit with The Worf Effect in Season 2, Season 3 has Kreese call him out on his Leeroy Jenkins tendencies and he learns to fight with more finesse, resulting in him winning several major bouts.
  • After the second film destroyed Ali's character offscreen ^note  this was an Written-In Absence as Elisabeth Shue was busy studying at Harvard, her return in Season 3 lets her set the record straight that Daniel's rant about her dumping him at prom and wrecking his car was far from a full picture of what happened. Just to make sure Daniel didn't come off as entirely in the wrong, she admits she did egg on the situation.
  • A meta one. Because Peyton List was busy with multiple projects when Season 3 was filmed (which also limited Tory's screentime in Season 3), she had to wear wigs rather than dye her blonde hair brunette. Many found the wigs to be very hideous^note it should be noted that the only time List wore a wig in Season 2 was her 'Madonna' wig for 80s' night at the roller rink, a scene where Mary Mouser was also wearing a wig rather than restyle her hair so for Season 4, the makeup team went back to simply having List dye her hair.
  • Two regarding Hawk's Heel–Face Turn in the Season 3 finale:
    • The beginning of Season 4 makes it clear that, despite Hawk seemingly being Easily Forgiven for his actions as a member of Cobra Kai at the end of Season 3, most of the Eagle Fang and Miyagi-do students have not forgotten everything he did to them prior to his Heel–Face Turn, and he still needs to earn their trust and forgiveness.
    • Given how hard Season 3 amped up Hawk's Jerkass behavior even in comparison to the previous season, some found his switch to good too abrupt, to the point that it almost came across as more motivated by his anger at Robby and Kyler than realizing what he was doing was wrong. Hawk's treatment of Kenny in Season 4 showed that while he did switch sides, he still hadn't stopped being a bully entirely, and after the Cobra Kais humiliate him by giving him a Traumatic Haircut, he has a more believable Jerkass Realization.
  • Season 3 got some criticism for turning Cobra Kai into a gang of even bigger bullies than ever before, to the point they were committing serious crimes, when the series had stuck to a more Grey-and-Gray Morality previously. While Cobra Kai is still the bad side with Kreese and Silver at the helm, Season 4 does a better job at making the students more humanized and less villainous. More specifically, Tory mellows out considerably, Robby makes it clear that he's not going to be manipulated by Kreese and helps the new student Kenny with his own bully problem, and Kenny himself is a massive victim of bullying before Cobra Kai builds him up just like Miguel back in Season 1. They also have Nice Girl Piper Elswith join, who is mainly there because she was enticed by their merchandise. Even Kyler acts considerably nicer around the other Cobra Kais by using his own money to treat them to luxuries they couldn't otherwise afford.
  • Tory's situation in Season 4 is treated with much more sympathy, which actually allows her to let go of her grudge towards Sam. To make matters better, Sam is called out for her role in instigating the rivalry and her callousness towards Tory's admittedly horrendous situation. Tory also gets therapy and Sam gets a look at Tory's living situation, which ultimately leads to them working together during the Season 5 finale.
  • The dispute with Tory's landlord was not well-received as it felt too contrived and he had little to do with the plot. Tory's feud with her Aunt Kandace was far better received due to being a lot more realistic, well-foreshadowed, the catalyst for Tory's Heel–Face Turn, and acted as Tory facing her own Shadow Archetype.
  • While the Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse message from Season 2 and 3 has merit, the fact that Sam was the one constantly saying this in regards to Tory was not well-received, especially after her mental health issues and home life were revealed. In Season 4, the flaws in this way of thinking are deconstructed with how Sam treats Tory like a “psycho”, humiliates her at her already degrading new job, and further dismisses her problems as a “sob story”. Amanda, on the other hand, shows a more empathetic way of dealing with Tory, which leads to her Heel–Face Turn. This cements that while Sam’s speech isn’t technically wrong, it can also be used as an excuse to be callous.
  • For fans who were upset with how horrible a friend Demetri was to Hawk in the early seasons, he is a much better friend after reconciling with him by offering to be Hawk's stag at the prom and encouraging him not to give up karate after his Traumatic Haircut.
  • After so many fans feeling They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character towards Anthony, he finally becomes an Ascended Extra in Season 4, with him being revealed to be a Peer-Pressured Bully, getting karma for his bratty behavior, bonding with Daniel, his parents realizing how they failed to discipline him, learning how to fight at last, and then pushing Kenny into joining Cobra Kai.
  • The idiocy of the third movie is mitigated by the revelation that Terry Silver developed a cocaine addiction due to his trauma from Vietnam, which was still present during that time. It also goes towards explaining his maniacal and downright cartoonish behavior in it.
  • After Aisha’s departure in Season 3, the show was really pushing The Smurfette Principle to emphasize the Designated Girl Fight dynamic with Tory and Sam. The increase in female inclusion in Season 4 with Devon, Piper and other new female Cobra Kais been well-received along with Tory moving away from her obsession with Sam.
  • Some fans found it grating that despite Johnny's more sympathetic ideals of Cobra Kai, Miyagi-Do was treated as inherently superior. Season 4 does a far better portrayal by having Cobra Kai learn Miyagi-Do's style from Robby in order to predict their attacks. This results in Cobra Kai taking out several of Miyagi-Do's members in the All-Valley Tournament. The winner of that year, Hawk, did not win because he learned a better style, but because he was the most versatile martial artist by learning three different styles. Johnny and Daniel even come to a consensus that they misjudged the other's craft.
  • Chozen's weights scam in Part II was criticized by viewers who pointed out that the scam should've realistically resulted in Chozen overpaying the villagers since he was using fake weights that were lighter than real ones, which would make the villagers' crops seem heavier. Turns out that this is actually what happened. Carmen points out the flaw after Daniel and Chozen tell the other adults the story and Chozen reveals he did lose money in the end, while admitting he didn't think his plan through.
  • Many fans found Mitch's Heel–Face Turn in Season 3 to be Unintentionally Unsympathetic because it was clear he would've stayed at Cobra Kai had Kreese not expelled him for losing to Kyler. In the Season 5 finale, Mitch betrays Eagle Fang and rejoins Cobra Kai once he's given the opportunity, while flat out admitting to the protagonists he would've never left if it was his decision.
  • Some fans found it rather contrived that Johnny, Daniel, and Kreese stayed relatively the same as characters for thirty years, or even underwent Aesop Amnesia to allow their rivalries to restart. Later re-introductions of characters from the films, such as Chozen, Terry Silver, Mike Barnes, and Ali Mills, were more nuanced, showing that they did indeed change since we last saw them, but not to the extent they're unrecognizable or can't fall back into old habits.
  • Stingray's behavior in Season 2 might have been a little controversial with how he is willing to harm other kids if it meant backing up the karate gang he hangs out with, no doubt a gang that are also teenagers. This got worse in Season 4 where Stingray gets negative development where he is willing to go along with Silver's scheme to frame Kreese just to rejoin Cobra Kai, making him appear as a selfish manchild who is willing to go any lengths for status and karate lessons. In Season 5, Stingray demonstrates a much stronger moral compass and standards compared to his depiction in Season 4. Stingray makes it crystal clear that he doesn't want any of the luxury items and elite Cobra Kai status that Silver gave him and would give it all back if he could. He was only following Silver out of fear that if he were to oppose him, he would receive punishment much worse than he already got back in Season 4. This is best shown where he helps Daniel get to the flagship dojo himself, even if it meant facing Terry Silver in person.
  • After three seasons of making her rivalry with Tory worse, Sam finally shows regret for her actions when she visits Tory after the latter reveals that Terry Silver had bribed the All Valley referee to let Cobra Kai win and gets a full view of her home life that Sam previously dismissed. Miguel calling Sam out on it before then also helps.
  • Seasons 4 and 5 were able to rescue Part III from being considered a candidate for Fanon Discontinuity to becoming a workable part of the so-called Miyagiverse, Warts and All. They delve quite deeply into Terry Silver's backstory, show the evolution of Mike Barnes, and have Jessica Andrews return, revealing her to be Amanda's cousin and even The Matchmaker for her and Daniel. All pretty impressive, seeing that the movie also suffered from Creator Backlash on the parts of John G. Avildsen, Robert Mark Kamen, and Ralph Macchio himself.
• The Scrappy: In the first three seasons, Anthony LaRusso has zero relevance to the story other than to be a Spoiled Brat, and also so the show could make that joke about him being the accidental product of a "sparring" session between Daniel and Amanda. It's quite telling that he actually became more popular with fans (or at least hated for the right reasons) in Season 4, when he graduates from brat to outright bully, simply because it meant that the show was finally doing something interesting with him. He loses this trope in Season 5, now fully aware of what he's done to be wrong and is part of the Miyagi-Fang alliance.
• Ship Mates:
  • Most people who ship either Miguel or Robby with Sam tend to ship the other one with Tory as a neat way to resolve the Love Dodecahedron.
  • Miguel/Sam, Hawk/Moon and Demetri/Yasmine shippers tend to get along well, as a lot of fans love the idea of Season 1's nerdy loser trio ending up with the girls from the Rich Bitch clique as a way of highlighting the extensive Character Development of all six characters.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: Naturally the Miguel/Sam/Robby/Tory Love Dodecahedron has created plenty of this.
• Shocking Moments: Terry Silver's appearance for the first time since the conclusion of Part III, starting from Season 4, was a welcome sight for many fans.
• Signature Scene:
  • Season 1: Kyler's bunch getting their asses whupped by Johnny and later Miguel; Aisha introducing Yasmine to the Melvin; Daniel's use of his dealership to impart Wax On, Wax Off on Robby; the All-Valley Tournament; Kreese's return.
  • Season 2: The Cobra Kais trashing Miyagi-Do that results in half the former dojo defecting to the latter; The Bar Brawl involving Johnny's buddies; Tommy succumbing to his illness; the school brawl between Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai that ends in tragedy; Ali's Facebook friend request.
  • Season 3: Yasmine and Demetri become an item; Hawk's beatdown of Brucks; Daniel reuniting with Kumiko, Chozen, and Yuna; Miguel and Sam's speech to save the All-Valley tournament; Daniel and Miguel getting to interact; the final brawl at the LaRusso home; Daniel and Johnny vs. Kreese; Kreese vs. Captain Turner; Miyagi-Do & Eagle Fang unite.
  • Season 4: Kreese re-recruting Silver to Cobra Kai; Kenny joining Cobra Kai; Daniel and Johnny's rematch with their students watching; Miguel and Sam fighting Robby and Tory at the prom afterparty; Robby vs. Eli and Sam vs. Tory for the All Valley championships; Silver bribing the ref and later betraying Kreese; Robby makes up with Johnny; Chozen allies with Daniel.
  • Season 5: Miguel meets his father; Carmen is pregnant; Miguel and Robby make up after a fight; the Miyagi-Fangs come together again with Daniel, Johnny, and Chozen as their senseis; the Sekai-Taikai qualifier; Mike, Chozen, and Johnny vs. Silver and the Fist; Silver is exposed and loses against Daniel; Kreese breaks out.
• Spoiled by the Format: Hawk's victory in Season 4's boys' All Valley final is telegraphed by the fact that Miyagi-Do have to win both finals to win the overall tournament trophy ahead of Cobra Kai. If he lost, it would make the final showdown between Sam and Tory completely meaningless, so naturally he wins to set up a winner-takes-all match.
• Strawman Has a Point:
  • When Daniel asks Kyler where his parents are from, he replies "Irvine". This was intended to be a Comically Missing the Point moment that shows how he can also be an Asian Airhead. But he did answer correctly. If Daniel wanted to know about Kyler's Asian heritage, he should have asked in a better way that was easier to understand- such as "what country did your family come to the USA from?".
  • Anthony tries to claim Kenny got his revenge at the All-Valley Tournament, which Kenny just scoffs at. Anthony is coming from a place of privilege when Robby was there to stop it and treated Anthony as the victim. No one was there to treat Kenny as the victim when he was being bullied by Anthony until the principal got involved after Kenny fought back.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: The series avoids the Strictly Formula format that haunted the rest of the franchise (although some aspects are Reconstruction) and follows the events (even if a bit late) and the character development left over from the first movie.

T-Z

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Aisha is put Out of Focus midway through Season 2, with her and Sam's rivalry being pretty much dropped to focus on the Sam/Tory rivalry, despite many fans finding the former to be more complex and interesting, with the latter being much more black and white and revolving around a Love Dodecahedron. She is then Put on a Bus for Season 3, allegedly because the writers didn't have any ideas for the character. However, with Yasmine returning and getting a redemption arc, it would have been interesting to see how the dynamic between her and Aisha would have changed since Yasmine had been Aisha's biggest bully. Also, given Aisha's status as a Token Good Teammate to Cobra Kai and her Friendly Enemy dynamic with Sam, it would have been interesting to see how she would have reacted to Kreese taking over Cobra Kai, whether she'd still be friends with Tory after Tory disfigured Sam, whether Sam would've reached out to her while dealing with her PTSD, and how she'd handle Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang teaming up. While she does reappear in Season 4, her role is minor, only giving Sam advice. She also could have filled Eagle Fang's vacancy in the girls' division of the tournament alongside Devon Lee, which would have upped the stakes with more protagonists competing for the championship.
  • Surprisingly popular minor characters Doug Rickenberger and Mikey don't appear in Season 4, with a line from Kyler explaining that they quit the dojo after the fight at the LaRusso house, due to the original stunt team leaving the series, disappointing fans who had hoped to see them compete at the All Valley.
  • Sarah, the girl who failed to get in to Cobra Kai during Kreese's tryouts in "King Cobra", would've been great as a person of interest when Eagle Fang was scouting new female recruits considering her aggressive attitude and rivalry with Tory.
  • Shawn Payne is basically in juvie throughout the entirety of his character arc, which dashes all fan hopes of him joining Cobra Kai as a legitimately dangerous fighter — especially given how he gave one of the show's best young fighter (Robby) one heck of a bout in Season 3's fifth episode. Sure, it's nice to see his younger brother, Kenny, become just as ruthless as him (if not more), but imagine the stakes if his older brother also joined and had formal karate training to complement his already skilled set as a brawler.
  • Xander Stone of Topanga would have been a welcome addition for the Season 4 tournament, given that Topanga participates like the previous year. Xander's Dance Battler fighting style would have been a lot more efficient for the 51st tournament where the skills competition would welcome his flashy flips and acrobatics. It would also be interesting seeing his reaction to Topanga getting absorbed into Cobra Kai in Season 5 as well.
  • While Mike Barnes' return in Season 5 as well as the Character Development he's gone through since Part III was well-received, a number of fans feel that him appearing in two episodes just wasn't enough and wish the show had him appear more frequently.
  • It would've also been nice if Piper Elswith also made an appearance in Season 5 as a continuous student of the now-expanded Cobra Kai, especially given that she made it to the quarterfinals despite being one of the newer students midseason, has a naturally athletic ability compensating formal karate training, and the fact that Silver has taken a liking to her — explicitly shown when he picks her as an opponent for Tory. All of this would have made her some sort of a threat to the Miyagi-Fangs (probably not on the same level as Sam, but still), as well as adding in an interesting dynamic to her fellow Cobra Kai teammates (Tory, Kyler, Kenny, and even Devon). Instead, the only semblance of an "appearance" in the season is an Instagram reel of Kenny bullying Anthony under her account.
  • For fans of The Next Karate Kid, it's disappointing not to see Julie Pierce, especially in Season 5 when Daniel is looking for allies against Silver. As a fellow student of Miyagi-Do, but not one who trained with either Daniel or Chozen and Sato, she could have added yet more complexity to the Miyagi-Do tradition, and could have had some amazing interactions with Chozen, Johnny, and the others. Plus, seeing her interact with Daniel has been a dream of many since the movie first came out. Additionally, Julie would have been a good foil/rival for Kim Da-Eun to fight as Kim Da-Eun has been the only adult female fighter on the show as of Season 5.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • As noted under Romantic Plot Tumor, the Season 2 rivalries between Miguel and Robby, and between Sam and Tory, could've been improved if they hadn't revolved around the love square and instead focused on other factors.
    • Miguel and Robby’s rivalry has a lot of potential for them to fight over Johnny and not understand where each other is coming from on that front, where Miguel has resentments towards Robby for kicking him over the balcony in the school brawl, and doesn't understand (from his perspective) why Robby is just throwing his father aside because Miguel kind of clings to Johnny as a father figure and is willing to overlook Johnny’s faults, thus not understanding Robby's trust issues; while Robby feels like his father is abandoning him for a new family which makes him feel worthless and want to lash out at the people who hurt him, which he sees as Johnny and Miguel. Instead, most of this rivalry happens in the background, and largely only comes into play once per season as a plot device for drama in their relationships with Sam.^note Season 1 having Miguel think Robby is moving in on Sam, leading him to fight dirty against Robby in the tournament; Season 2 having Sam cheat on Robby with Miguel; and Season 3 having Robby throw his lot in with Kreese upon catching Sam and Miguel having an intimate moment Their rivalry is explored more and finally resolved in Season 5.
    • With Sam and Tory's rivalry, they had a rocky first meeting and enough grounds for tension just based on their different social classes, life experiences, and possibly even how they had different ideas of what was “best” for Aisha, with Sam seeing Tory as a bad influence on Aisha (Aisha invites Tory to the beach club as her guest, and the first thing Tory does is steal from the club and pressure Aisha to go drinking with her) while Tory sees Sam as a "nun" who'd rather keep Aisha meek and docile. Instead, their rivalry is about Miguel, which ends up making the rivalry feel shallow since Miguel isn’t that into Tory and is still harboring feelings for Sam the whole time he's with Tory.
  • Many fans felt that Season 4 could have done a better job of exploring the relationship between Robby and his now former Miyagi-Do teammates, particularly Demetri. The only acknowledgement of it is Nate calling Robby a traitor at the drive-in and it's quickly cast aside when all of the other teens show up to insult each other. When Robby and Demetri wind up fighting in the semi-finals, Robby does not acknowledge the fact he's now fighting someone he used to defend and Demetri doesn't try to talk any sense into him when Robby shows him no mercy. Again, Season 5 goes more into this, with Demetri defusing an argument between Robby and Eli regarding the traumatic haircut.
  • Some also feel Miguel's arc to find his biological father in Season 5 was a great idea that was not given proper justice. It's especially jarring after Season 4 ended on a cliffhanger with this being one of the major threads to be explored in the new season, but the arc ends after only two episodes and is never touched upon again. For most of the season, the show instead decides to focus on yet another round of Romantic Plot Tumor between Miguel and Sam.
• Unconvincingly Unpopular Character: Kyler and his gang bullying him and coming from a poor environment are the reasons why he is unpopular. But apart from that, Miguel is good-looking, friendly, proficient in graphic illustration, and has an Encyclopedic Knowledge in certain subjects. He sheds the "loser" aspect after he beats Kyler and his gang in the cafeteria, to the applause of the other students.
• Unexpected Character: While having Jessica return in Season 5 was surprising, bigger was the revelation she's Amanda's cousin and the one who introduced her to Daniel in the first place.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic:
  • Ironically, the treatment of Daniel's past and how it affected him. While plenty of time is spent showing how Johnny was affected by the loss at the tournament and Kreese's actions after, Daniel's seems rather like they're like everything he went through was 80s-movie-shenanigans when in fact it was all really traumatic and at times life-endangering. One such example is Daniel's story of how Johnny and his friends ran him off the road and down a hill on his bike. It's implied this is a story he will not shut up about and has blown out of proportion when his mother retells the story and Anthony is confused that he fell down a hill rather than a cliff. In all reality, this is a horrible experience for him, as the hill is quite steep, the fall is clearly very painful, and afterwards he goes home, tearfully throws his bike in the trash, and argues with his mother, while begging to go back to their old lives. The last time as they're going inside the boy again quietly says, "I just want to go home." and states he wishes to take the bus from now on due to it being safer. He's literally begging to go where he is safe in both major and minor cases in the film. Yet his emotional issues are often played off as, "Not being able to let go of a 33-year-old rivalry," despite showing he does not blame Johnny for what he'd done but the dojo (and Kreese) that had in fact poisoned his mind. The way Daniel's feelings are treated is fairly strange considering the show's cast and creators have said the show is about shades of grey and that both sides have valid points.
    CinemaSins: That's not bullying. That's attempted murder!!! Holy SH*T!
  • Hawk's beatdown of Brucks in Season 3 is supposed to be seen as another example of him being corrupted by Kreese's influence. But since Brucks was, along with Kyler, one of the main perpetrators of the bullying against the nerd group of Eli, Miguel, and Demetri back in Season 1, it instead comes across as Hawk dishing some much needed Laser-Guided Karma. The show cuts back briefly to Eli "pre-Hawk" while he's bashing in Brucks's face lends some credence to this.
  • Miguel beating up Hawk at Coyote Creek was meant to be a sign of him being corrupted by Kreese's teachings. However, by that point, Hawk had vandalized Miyagi-Do and stolen Miyagi's Medal of Honor, an act that cost Johnny half his students, and was parading the medal around with no remorse of what he had done (not to mention Miguel's ex-girlfriend—someone he still has feelings for—trains at Miyagi-Do), so it's hard not to agree with Miguel. Johnny calls him out on this, even though he would've handed Hawk's ass to him had he known about the Medal of Honor. It's even more odd when you consider that Hawk himself had no problem with what Miguel did and was as friendly to him as ever after the fact.
  • The Miyagi-Do students Johnny trains in "Then Learn Fly" are seemingly meant to be seen as a bit cowardly for not daring to make the jump. The fact is, he is asking them to do something incredibly dangerous—if they fail to cross that gap, they will end up with permanent damage. Miguel fell a fraction of that distance and was wheelchair-bound for weeks, if not months, so it's completely unsurprising they're not comfortable with doing something this crazy.
  • Kenny giving Anthony a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown in the Season 4 finale is supposed to come across as him Jumping Off the Slippery Slope as his fellow geeks turned Cobra Kai thugs did before him since, objectively speaking, he had already gotten his revenge and justice in Episode 7 when Anthony gets suspended for bullying him and Anthony had approached him in the locker room in a sincere attempt to apologize and make amends. However, since Anthony has long been one of the show's most disliked characters for being an obnoxious Spoiled Brat, most viewers were on Kenny's side as he delivered the beatdown. Notably, Season 5 took great pains to make Kenny's continued pestering and assaulting of Anthony be far more petulant than before, while Anthony admits to Sam he does deserve his fair share of it (though dunking Anthony's head into an unflushed toilet was a big Moral Event Horizon to a lot of viewers due to how disgusting and dangerous such an act would be).
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Season 5 has Kreese having visions of people from his past (including his own younger self) talking to him during his therapy sessions. This includes a teenage Johnny Lawrence, not as a Time-Shifted Actor, but with a near-flawless recreation of a young William Zabka from The '80s.
• WTH, Costuming Department?:
  • In "Pulpo" and "No Mercy", a lot of the kids are shown wearing long sleeves and sweatshirts on the first day of school, even though the series takes place in California's San Fernando Valley, where early September temperatures average around 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 C). It's pretty clear that these scenes were filmed in the Atlanta area during the fall months, which are much much cooler on average than California is during that time of year.
  • Tory has a bit of this happening in Season 3 with regards to her hair. The showrunners wanted Tory to have an edgy, dark look to her, but Peyton List is a blonde in real life. While List was dying her hair in Season 2, she didn't want to go through the process while filming Season 3 (likely due to being involved with other projects simultaneous to the shooting of Season 3 in late 2019) so the makeup team settled for giving her wigs. The wigs were pretty unflattering and left much to be desired, so List went back to just dying her hair for Season 4.
  • Again in Season 5, which takes place during summer break, people are wearing long sleeves, several layers, and jackets. California must've been really cold in 2019!
  • A lot of times, the children are dressed unsuitably during training and tournaments. For example, Tory, Devon and Sam fight with hair styled in their face or down instead of tied back completely; Tory has long nails and Bert and Aisha are wearing their glasses. All of these things are covered as dangerous in the first class hour in Real Life and martial arts teachers would not let you fight like that.

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