#same with the tory > amanda stuff too

[bisexualmikisayaka]

as discussed last? season with the disappointing resolution to the robby & miguel conflict and the introduction of the baby as something that healed all wounds, and now with the focus on johnny and carmen needing to be married to sort of… idk, cement? solidify? progress? their relationship as their daughter is born, there’s just something so evil about the in-universe veneration of the nuclear family when johnny has not only been absolved of completely fucking over his biological son through becoming a “proper” man (Man who is Married To Woman, becoming Correct Father), it also completely negates the positive influence growing close to miguel had on his life before they were (step)father and (step)son, which itself was deliberately evocative of the original mr miyagi and daniel bond, and that itself was deliberate in transcending the constraints of the nuclear family and connecting two people across regardless of age or race or life experience. they shared something that meant everything to them and in turn they lifted each others’ lives up. it just feels like another way the show falls into its own trap and completely misses the point of everything positive from the source material it draws upon

[theomencometh]

exhale

Fandom: Cobra Kai Pairing: Robby Keene/Tory Nichols Rating: T Key Tags: Post-Season/Series 5, reconciliation, missing scene, hurt/comfort Word Count: 4,716 Read on AO3

Summary:

The morning after Tory breaks her hand punching through solid stone and fights her old dojo, she wakes up early to get to work.

The morning after Tory breaks her hand punching through solid stone and fights her old dojo, she wakes up early to get to work.  Her eyes sting and itch from lack of sleep.  The rest of her body aches, except for her hand, which throbs.  She doesn’t let herself dwell on any of it, instead forcing herself to her feet to get ready in the pre-dawn light.

Brush teeth, rushed and methodical.  Shower, quickly and painfully, the water always too cold.  Put the brace back on her hand carefully, biting the inside of her lip to suppress any noise the pain might pull out of her.  Change into an outfit appropriate for work.  Check on Brandon, sleeping soundly.  Check on Mom, still breathing.  Ignore the karate bag standing ready by the door, because she doesn’t need it today.  There’s no dojo to go back to.

She focuses on her hand instead, a lesser pain.

Grab the shitty pain meds off the counter and stuff them in her pocket for when she needs them again.  It hasn’t been the recommended six hours since she got the slightly less shitty ones from the paramedic last night–she really hasn’t slept enough, everything aches–but she’ll need them later.

Exit the apartment, checking to ensure she’s alone.  Lock the door behind her.  Head to the bus stop for the 33 minute ride and 8 minute walk to the diner she got hired at this summer.

Wonder again if she should drop out of school so she can work full-time there, take more hours at the second job, ensure that Brandon actually has options for post-secondary education because God knows that Tory doesn’t.  She used to think that maybe karate could be a way out, but now…

She couldn’t win a tournament without cheating.  She has no dojo to go home to.  Her hand throbs like a heartbeat, and she doesn’t think it’ll ever be fixed again.

The doctor gave her a better hand brace than the cheap one she and Sam bought, and while the unfamiliar weight is annoying, she knows that it would be worse without it.

Her hand is somehow only fractured, not fully broken.  Amanda LaRusso overheard the paramedic tell Tory that she needed to go to the hospital for an x-ray, then swiftly overrode any protests about the cost with the assurance that the LaRussos would pay whatever insurance wouldn’t.  Tory could’ve fought against it–she keeps telling herself she had the energy, she needs to believe that she could if she had wanted to, but… she hadn’t wanted to.  Robby’s hand gently rested on her lower back, steady but not pushing.  Devon was shaking next to her, crashing from the adrenaline and the weight of the night.  Miguel and Sam stood across the parking lot, watching the scene unfold and ready to intervene if needed, although she suspected they’d take Mrs. LaRusso’s side rather than hers.

Maybe it was the same side, now.  Maybe she could pretend to give in just this once, to pay back for everything she risked to bring Sensei Silver down.  They owed her for that.

The ambulances were full of people more injured than her, so Sam LaRusso drove, Robby sitting in the back seat with her the whole time and absently rubbing his sternum.  She now has a brace to keep everything in line and lots of ice to keep the swelling down.  It’s good enough.

This is the last scar Terry Silver will ever give her.  It’ll heal, and she’ll be stronger for it.

It’s a new day.  The buildings outside the bus window pass in a blur of boarded-up storefronts and colorful graffiti tags.  Tory stares at them without seeing, breathing slowly and steadily.

Her boss takes one look at her hand when she enters the kitchen and asks “What happened to you, kid?”

Tory can’t get her to stop calling her kid.  She’s not a kid–hasn’t been since her mom got sick, really–and something about the way that she says it makes Tory’s stomach twist.

“Karate accident,” she says shortly.  Michelle gives her a calculating look.

“You breaking our promise, Nichols?”

When Tory first interviewed with Michelle, she decided that she liked her.  She’s five foot even, with spiky gray hair and sharp eyes, and she’s a complete hardass, but she hired Tory and quickly promoted her from dishwasher to server because their best waitress quit and the other new hires have no work ethic.  The only reference she made to Tory’s blemished record was a statement at the very end of their first meeting.

“If I hire you, there can be no fighting that would interfere with work.  Absolutely none on the premises, none that puts us down a worker when we need you.  I will fire you faster than you can blink.”

Tory had nodded.

“I understand.”

Maybe it was a stupid agreement to make, given her history and without Sensei Kreese to protect her.

Silver never liked her.  She knew that from the beginning, when he would watch carefully every time Sensei gave her a nugget of praise.  To Sensei Kreese, she and Robby were the chosen champions, the ones with the most potential who could make it the furthest, the start of a dynasty.  To Silver, they were dangerous.  Valuable when under his control, but a threat outside of it.

Maybe he knew that they didn’t have what it takes to be the type of champion he wants, that they would both end up leaving.  Maybe he thought that by tying them together, he could tie them to the dojo.

He always disliked Robby most, like he was an annoying fly buzzing around his head that he wanted to swat or break the legs off of.  Once Sensei Kreese got arrested, being connected to Robby was a liability, not a strength.

Perhaps Silver was right.  Robby left the dojo and went running back to Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso, news which made Silver’s face do something weird that Tory couldn’t read.  Maybe Tory had tied herself to him too strongly to ever stay in the cobra pit without an ally.

“Nichols?” Michelle asks.  Tory breathes in, clearing her head.

“It’s fine.  It won’t happen again,” she says, bile rising in her throat at the way her voice immediately takes that passive tone that she used with her senseis, the one that stopped fooling them weeks ago.

Michelle stares at her, no doubt calculating if Tory is more trouble than she’s worth in her head, then nods.

“You look like shit, kid.  If you need the day off, you should’ve called yesterday.”

“I don’t need the day off,” she says, the unpaid bills on her kitchen counter flashing through her mind.  Once word gets out that Cobra Kai has shut down, she loses whatever immunity having threatening men on her side gave her with the landlord.  She can’t give him an excuse to stop by.

Michelle keeps looking at her.  Tory’s hand aches.

“I had a rough night, but it’s over now.  I need to get the tables set.”

Michelle considers her for a second longer, then waves her off.

“Go on then, get to work.  Don’t drop any plates with that busted hand.”

Tory plans on using her other hand, anyway.

The breakfast rush provides a welcome distraction, and the brunch rush provides an even bigger one.  Every table in the diner is predictably full, constantly giving Tory something to do.  She’s one of two servers in the front, which makes for a lot of tips but no time to breathe.  She has to sneak off to the corner of the kitchen in order to take her pain meds when the time comes.

This job is more fast-paced than her others have been, complete with Michelle barking commands and the constant stream of orders passing through her brain on the way from the table to the kitchen and back again, but she likes it.  She’s not on roller skates.  She’s not in a fucking mermaid outfit surrounded by screaming children.  Most patrons here are passably polite as long as she gives them something that might pass for a smile.  It’s her favorite job that she’s had so far, and she’s glad that, for a few hours, she gets to turn her mind off and slip into the routine of getting people food.

Her break is at 10:00.  Isa the cook makes her a plate of eggs and browns some toast for her, and she brings the plate to the back lot behind the dumpster, where no patrons ever look and she can’t see anyone pass by on the street.  It smells like shit, but it’s a quiet oasis for the moment.

The door to the kitchen opens as she’s moving on to the toast, eggs clumsily eaten with her left hand.  She freezes under Michelle’s gaze, like she’s been caught doing something wrong even though a free meal is part of the benefits of this job, written in the contract and everything.

“There’s a boy asking about you,” she says, and Tory’s heart freezes for a moment, then doubles its speed.

“Who?  What does he want?”

Her first thought is that it’s Kenny and something horrible happened to him.  Maybe Silver had some sort of contingency plan and the nightmare isn’t over.  Maybe it’s someone else from Cobra Kai here for revenge because she destroyed their home from the inside out.

“Brown hair, about your height, smiles out of the corner of his mouth, looks like he belongs in an 80s teen movie.  Should I call the cops?”

Tory’s heartbeat slows.

“Oh,” she says.  The relief is so strong she can taste it like jelly on her toast.

“There are no boyfriends at work, Nichols,” Michelle says, but her voice has lost some of her sternness.

“We��re not–”

They didn’t talk about it after the fight.  Tory meant it when she said she couldn’t do all that heartfelt shit, and he didn’t push.

“Want me to send him away?” Michelle asks.  “He doesn’t know if you’re here; I can tell him he’s not allowed to stay if he’s asking after staff members.”

“No, I’ve got it,” Tory says.  “He’ll leave.”

“Don’t chase him away if he wants to wait for a table and order something,” Michelle says.  Jokes, maybe, at least halfway.  Tory nods and dumps her plate on the pile of dirty dishes for Frank to do as she passes.

She sees Robby waiting outside the front window, hands stuffed into his jean pockets, head down as he lazily paces along the sidewalk.  He has a flannel on, a faded brown one that lets him blend into the background, even though he’s never quite succeeded in doing that with her.

She swallows and walks past the patrons waiting to be seated, heading out into the bright California sun.

“Hey.”

His eyes snap up to her immediately, smiling tugging at the corner of his mouth.  Tory breathes through the shockwave that it sends through her after weeks of being deprived. 

“Hey,” he sighs, relief filling the space between them.  It’s only a few feet, but it feels like miles.  Tory swallows again.

“Sorry for just showing up.  I wasn’t sure when your shift ends.”

“Not until 2:30,” she says.  He nods, eyes still locked on hers.  She suppresses the uncomfortable shiver that runs up her spine despite the summer warmth.

She doesn’t know what he’s seeing.  She used to think that she had him figured out, but he walked away when she was still rooted in place, and she’s not so sure anymore.

“Can I see you after?” he asks.  “Maybe talk about some of that heartfelt shit?  Or not, if you can’t yet.  We can go wherever you want.”

She knows that if she told him no, he would leave and wait until she made the next move.  Robby doesn’t push–it’s one of the things that set him apart from the other Cobras.  It’s one of the signs that he was never really one of them, not at heart.  She should’ve seen him leaving from a mile away, but somehow being abandoned in the snake pit still caught her by surprise.

It used to be her home.  It used to be the only place where she was powerful and in control, where she had free reign to crush anyone who touched her.  By the time Robby left, it stopped feeling like that.

First Sensei Lawrence, then Sensei Kreese.  First Miguel and Aisha, then Hawk, then Robby.  In the end, the dojo was just fake trophies and a tightening noose.

She would’ve followed them all out if she thought it was possible.

“Yeah,” she says.  “I’ll meet you out here.”

Robby nods, meeting her gaze levelly.

“I’ll be here,” he says.  She hears the promise within it, the unspoken this time that he doesn’t tack on at the end.

He abandoned her there.  He gave her an ultimatum and moved on without her, carving a new place for himself with his father and Miguel and the LaRussos.

She hopes he saved room for her, too.  She’s sick of needing to carve out that space herself, and she won’t do it with him.

“I have to get back to work,” she says eventually, when the silence feels like it’s gone on for too long.  It’s probably true by now, anyway.  She was almost at the end of her break when Michelle found her, and with busy weekends there’s no wiggle room for grabbing a few extra minutes.

Robby nods.  “I’ll see you after.  Have a good rest of your shift.”

He gives her a small smile, one that she tries to return, but she doesn’t look back when she reenters the diner.

“All good, kid?” Michelle asks when she returns, two plates in her hands.

“All good,” she confirms, taking the plates, balancing one on her forearm by the crook of her elbow so she doesn’t have to mess with the brace.

“Table four,” Michelle instructs.  “Oh, and Tory?”

Tory pauses.

“Did that boy have anything to do with your hand?”

Tory doesn’t let herself react.  He had everything to do with it, but not in the way Michelle thinks.

“No,” she says instead.  “Robby’s a good guy.”

Michelle nods once.  Tory takes it as the dismissal that it is and brings table four their plates.  She doesn’t let herself think about Robby again until near the shift’s end, focusing instead on not dropping anything and not arguing with any patrons and not getting her waffle and pancake orders mixed up.  They officially close at 2:00, and Tory busies herself taking care of the last straggling customers, cleaning the dining area, and making vague smalltalk with the other server.  At around 2:20 she spots Robby lingering on the sidewalk outside, scuffing the tip of his shoe against the pavement and squinting against the afternoon sun.

His hair looks almost golden in this light, longer than it used to be.  Her chest aches, like Kenny hit her in the sternum and knocked all of the breath out of her.

“Hey, kid,” Michelle says, startling her out of her thoughts.  “You done with everything out here?”

“Just need to finish stacking the chairs,” she replies.  Michelle waves her off.

“June can do that.  You’ll slow us down with your bum hand.  Go clock out and take some of the strawberries with you.  They won’t last the break.”

Tory nods.  The first time Michelle told her to take some food home, Tory bristled and told her she isn’t a charity case.  Michelle leveled her with such a hard look that Tory had to bite the inside of her lip, and she never resisted again.  Michelle hates wasting food and will kill them if they take more than their allotted one meal per shift, but always offloads produce that is near its limit and other perishables onto whoever is nearest rather than throwing them in the trash.  Tory is one of her favorite victims, but her semi-wrinkly produce has ensured that Brandon actually eats fruit some weeks, so she has swallowed her pride.  Better it go to her brother than to the dumpster when it’s still good.

“Strawberries?” Robby asks when she finally leaves the diner, head tilted quizzically.

“You know Michelle,” Tory says, although that might not be true.  She hadn’t been working at this job very long before Robby left for Mexico, and lots of things changed for them then, even before they broke up.  Still, Robby nods in acceptance, and they spend a moment just looking at each other before Tory looks away.  She doesn’t want to know what he sees.

“How’s your hand?” he asks.

Tory glances at it, useless in its brace with the fingers peeking out.

“It hurts like a bitch,” she admits.  “Can’t take more pain meds yet.”

Robby nods.

“Come on,” he says, jerking his head towards the street.  “Let’s get out of here.  There’s that park a few blocks away, or we can catch the bus back to either of our places.  Or whatever you want, if you’ve got somewhere else in mind.”

“The park,” Tory says.  She’ll be damned if she ends up running into Sensei Lawrence or Miguel today, and there’s no way she’s bringing Robby back to the apartment right now.  Robby accepts it easily, waiting for her to start walking so they can keep pace together.

They don’t speak while they walk, but it doesn’t feel awkward.  Robby knows how to exist in silence, without expectation, and Tory likes that about him. There isn’t pointless babble if they don’t want there to be.  Tory is too exhausted to muster up small talk, and now that she’s mentioned her hand, it’s throbbing.

She kind of wants to reach over and hold Robby’s hand, but it wouldn’t be a good idea with the brace and the other hand has fucking strawberries in it.  She drifts closer instead, letting their shoulders brush, and she sees Robby smile out of the corner of her eye.

The park has a few kids running around the jungle gym and a trio playing frisbee on the green, but it’s relatively quiet compared to the parks near either of their apartments or the school.  Robby wanders over to a bench in the shade and she follows, sinking down next to him and setting the strawberries aside so she can cradle her bad hand in her lap.

“So, what’s up with you and Miguel?” she asks before Robby can catch her off guard with his own questions.

Robby sighs, looking out at the jungle gym where a kid slides down the slide into her brother’s arms, shrieking with joy the whole way.

“Carmen is pregnant,” he says.  Tory contains her surprise.  “I don’t know.  Mom can’t take me.  Mr. Larusso wouldn’t, even if I wanted to ask him.  I want this to work, and that means playing happy family.”

“That sucks.”

Robby scuffs the toe of his shoe against the pavement the bench is mounted on, arms crossed across his chest.

“Yeah,” he sighs.  “But it’s also nice, too.  I’m tired of fighting all the time, with my dad, with Miguel, with the Larussos, with whatever dojo I’m not part of.  Knowing that I have a room to sleep in at an actual apartment at the end of the day is nice.  This feels the most stable my life has ever been.  Besides, Miguel is pretty cool now that he doesn’t hate me.”

Tory remembers Miguel stepping in front of Robby when Kenny tried to confront them.  At one point during the fight, she risked glancing over at Robby and knew he was okay because Miguel was there next to him.  She doesn’t know if she can ever fully forgive Miguel for choosing Sam over her at that party a lifetime ago, but she remembers his white knight streak, even if she can barely remember being on the receiving end of it.  If he’s decided Robby is someone to protect, that’s fine.  She beats down the monster in her chest yowling about how unfair it all is.

“Good for you,” she says, cursing how sarcastic it sounds when she meant to be sincere.

“Thanks,” Robby says with a smile.

Of course he heard her meaning instead of her tone.  It scares her, sometimes, how far behind her walls he’s gotten.  They’ve been off for weeks, but last night something slotted into place again.  He knows she only stayed because she thought she could take Silver down.  He knows that things weren’t as good for her as he originally thought, but he doesn’t know the full extent of it.

“Sensei Kim made me punch through stone because she thought you made me weak,” she confesses.  She sees Robby turn to her out of the corner of her eye, but she can’t look at him.  She keeps her gaze fixed on the siblings swinging across the monkey bars instead.

“Silver and three of his goons were there, too,” she continues after a long moment.  “I wanted to leave, but I thought… I don’t know.  I didn’t know what they would do to me.  She said that I cared more about you than the dojo, and I lost it.  If I couldn’t convince her that she was wrong, I was sure it’d be the end.  I don’t even know what I had left to lose, but I was just… scared.  After, Silver said I made the right decision, and to make sure I kept making it.”

She picks at the dark polish on her thumb, dislodging a flake and watching it drift down to the pavement, nothing to stop it.

“I don’t know what I would’ve done if Larusso hadn’t shown up at my door.”

Samantha Larusso: Tory’s worst enemy and the only person who actually managed to help her.

When she opened the door to her last night, she thought that maybe Sam had come to finish the job, making a bad day even worse, but that isn’t what happened.  It may have started like that in Sam’s mind, but Tory watched her cycle through a myriad of emotions when she saw her hand, reevaluating and recontextualizing everything, even if she didn’t understand.  She has the worst poker face of anyone Tory has ever met, too much bleeding heart sincerity that makes everyone bend to her will for stupid reasons.

But then she was in her house like a breath of fresh air, and then she was helping Tory rally the others to take Cobra Kai down like a general marching to war.  And when Sensei Kim had her foot on Tory’s hand, sending white-hot pain rippling through her arm and into her chest, she swooped in like an avenging angel, saving Tory again.

It was strange to have someone defend her when it really mattered.  Tory is used to having to do things on her own, working her ass off to shape Cobra Kai into the feared entity that gives her power by reputation.  She’s always had support, but it was fickle and only stretched as far as the dojo and revenge.  This was the first time it felt like people were defending her because they wanted her to be safe, even if they were only doing it because they now had a common enemy.  Loyalties shifted yet again.

Still, with Sam rushing to her aid and Robby stepping up to her side, it felt like it wasn’t just about defeating Silver.  It felt like part of it might have been for her, too.

It’s a dangerous train of thought to go down.  Every time Tory thinks she can trust someone, they do something to shatter that.  Miguel.  Sensei Kreese.  Robby.

But Robby is here, now, reaching for her uninjured hand.

“I’m sorry,” he says.  Tory keeps watching the kids play, not sure she can face him.  She nods once, just to let him know she heard.

“I’m sorry I left you in there,” he continues.  “If I’d known…”

And that’s the thing.  No one knew, except everyone did.  Robby knew what Cobra Kai was like, but he didn’t know what Terry Silver’s Cobra Kai was like for her.  He didn’t know what would happen when Sensei Kim arrived, or how much his leaving destabilized things.  But he knew the dojo was turning into something worse than it used to be.  Something far more dangerous.

“Even if you had known, I wouldn’t have listened,” she says shortly.  “I wasn’t about to follow you just because you told me to.  Besides, you can’t change the past.”

“That doesn’t mean I can’t regret it,” he replies.

“You regret everything,” she fires back.  She can feel him shrug next to her.

“I’ve made a lot of mistakes.”

Tory scuffs the heel of her shoe against the pavement.

“You and me both.”

The siblings on the playground squeal as they chase each other around, the older one tagging the smaller one and scampering away with a laugh.  Tory doesn’t cry, but she thinks if it was someone like Sam Larusso feeling these emotions, she’d be a mess.  She can feel it bubbling inside her, uncomfortably hot and overwhelming.

Robby laces their fingers together, and she finally brings herself to face him.  He’s already looking at her, of course, but she’s used to that.  She knows how his gaze feels, whether he’s happy to see her or begging her for something she can’t give.  Now, he just looks… sad.  Sadder than she wants him to be.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” he says.  It’s not the right phrasing, because no one whose mouth is turned down that far can be glad, but that’s something else about her and Robby: they both know what it’s like to invest themselves so hard in the wrong thing, only to have it torn away from them.  Even if it’s overall for the best, it still fucking stings.

“Am I?” she asks, and her voice cracks, and her vision is blurring, but she breathes in and the tears don’t fall.  Robby squeezes her hand.

“You can be,” he replies.  “It’s over.  Cobra Kai is gone.”

“I know,” she says.  Her Cobra Kai has been gone for far longer than one day.

“We can build something new, now,” he continues.  “Something better.”

Tory’s chin quivers.  She doesn’t want something new.  She wants it to be last year, before Terry Silver, before she won the All-Valley by cheating instead of her own merit, before Aisha left, before Miguel broke his back.  Maybe back even further than that to before her mom got sick, when Tory still felt like there was someone out there to protect her, instead of needing to do it all herself.

“Hey,” Robby says, gently dragging her back to the present.  “It’s going to be okay.”

Tory nods.  She knows he’s right, but only because there’s no other option.  Tory is always okay.  She can’t consider anything else.

She takes in a breath and doesn’t let the tears fall.  There’s no alternative.

“Hey,” Robby repeats, voice gentle.  “Come here.”

He gently wraps his arm around her, tugging her down towards him.  She tries to resist for a second, but there isn’t really a point, and she doesn’t really want to.  Tory collapses against his shoulder, turning her face towards his worn out flannel and the crook of his neck like she can hide there until this whole shitshow is actually over instead of just pretending to be.  He brings his other arm around her in a hug and she attempts to burrow further into him.

He might be murmuring some meaningless assurances, but she can’t hear him over the rushing in her ears, only feel the slight vibrations of his throat, as steady as his heartbeat.  It doesn’t matter.  Nothing he says can make her feel better, but he’s here.  He’s here and he’s holding her and she feels something close to safe for the first time in weeks.

“It’s okay,” he maybe says, and it still isn’t, but this is as close as it’s going to get right now.

Tory feels a large, hot tear track it’s way down her cheek, and she finally exhales.

[vimesbootstheory]

CK S6 Pt1 Thoughts

Do we still call this "the cut" or did we leave that behind on LJ? Anyway the thoughts are under the cut. I haven't looked at anyone else's thoughts yet, no idea whether this is echo chamber stuff or if I watched a different show than the rest of you.

Overall I honestly had a blast, I'm probably gonna talk more here about stuff I disliked but that's because positive stuff kept me glued to the screen while negative stuff sent me to vent in the notes doc I had open in another window lol

Eagle Fang was Johnny's thing, not an extension of Kreese's Cobra Kai, and I was so angry at the show for not understanding that that I burst into tears

I continue to think that the big cast is spreading character work too thin, such that most characters were either made much less interesting than they have been in previous seasons (e.g. Daniel, Miguel) or were given too little time with the character work they had (e.g. Robby, Kenny) or both.

Characters I made particular note of who are now boring: Daniel, Amanda, Sam, Hawk.

I was surprised in particular how Daniel was given virtually no character work other than this token Miyagi thing. I prefer when Daniel's a bitch. Daniel being The Reasonable One is incredibly boring.

We kinda got slutty gi back? In hallucination form? Briefly?

This was a hard realization: I don't think I ship Daniel/Johnny in these episodes. I'm still absolutely bonkers for them in previous seasons (1-4 mostly) and in the fandom sphere but honestly I wanted Johnny away from Daniel most of the time in s6e1-5. I found it really off-putting how much Daniel was trying to change Johnny into someone he's not.

Fave new character was Kwon. Enjoyably silly. I like his anime hair.

Delighted that Jarmen baby is a girl, even more delighted that the topic of the baby was pretty backgrounded, didn't spend a lot of time on it.

I am filled with incandescent rage that they neutered SamTory; it was weird rooting for Johnny's terrible strategies to make them frenemies instead of friends. But it looks like they're not quite done yet so I'm gonna cool my heels on this point.

Team Captain nepo babies lol. I would be so pissed if I were any of the other Miyagi-Do students.

Loved Johnny championing his female students. In an ideal world I would not have had a little voice at the back of my head wishing he'd spend the same kind of quality time with Robby (How about some Robby time? Robby? Robby now? Johnny and Robby?); nevertheless for what it was, I still really like Johnny supporting Devon and (to a lesser extent) Tory. Meanwhile Daniel over here in his sexist era I guess, ok. Like he really only wanted to send his daughter and no other girls.

Peyton List is the part-season's MVP, obviously obviously. She was so great. Kicked ass, kicked acting's ass. Tory was probably the meatiest character of the season, too, though that's not saying a ton.

My worst fears were not realized re: Johnny's character. He still isn't the fully-realized guy he was in early seasons, but relative to other characters, he's having a pretty OK season IMO. Knock on wood.

I was unexpectedly all riled up on Anthony's behalf. Why does he HAVE to get into karate? Why does he have to be Daniel 2.0? At least this was addressed textually.

So pissed on Kenny's behalf. Justice for Kenny. He deserved one of the top 6 spots. He got poo pants instead. Jesus Christ.

Loved the Lawrence vs Barnes fight, very metal, excellent choreo, love watching Zabka move. I would bet the cobros are lighting up at having an answer on that particular head-to-head.

This has been a running thing with Cobra Kai for a while, but I'm not even sure how I as an audience member was supposed to see Johnny's current teaching style? Honestly I loved his day of blended-style lessons. Obviously broken glass in the koi pond is not a great idea. But like. Jesus Christ, Daniel, katas HAVE STRIKES. WHAT DO YOU EVEN WANT.

Did they really just write Chozen out without any goodbyes? :(((

Daniel's ego flare-up and "I'm the boss" moment, contender for only interesting aspect to his character in these five eps. Hell yea hell yea. Show some goddamn teeth Daniel LaRusso.

One thing I think CK excels at and has always excelled at is keeping the stakes up for tournament-style fights, such that more often than not, I can't tell just through narrative signposting who's going to win. Robby vs Miguel in particular was a nail-biter. I did a full-body arm-pump when Robby won. Though the stakes were weird because it's not as someone can't win in Barcelona if they're not a captain? That was confusing and makes me think it's going to be their way of doling out successes across the main four kids. Like Robby and Sam for the captains, and then Miguel will win, presumably Tory too when she flip-flops back to team good guys again.

Interesting acting/directing/writing (idk which) choice during Robby vs Miguel, Johnny visibly rooting for Robby.

I love that Johnny brought up losing his mum when Tory's mum died, but I really hope they get the chance to bond over it at some point.

The fuckin magic jewel bottle cap got me so bad. Resourceful DIY toys is poor person realness and it was so cute and heartbreaking.

It's weird that new!CK got into the tournament because it's clearly not really the same dojo, so they haven't really qualified.

I'm so pumped about Kreese being the main villain. That was true before the season began and I still feel that way.

I'm excited for part 2!

[blog-nstuff2]

Things in cobra Kai season 6 part 1 that make sense:

Tory still wanting to fight for team captain after losing her mom because she remembers her mom saying they have been dealt a rough hand and have to fight in general (but metaphorically) and she already said winning the tournament was all she could feasibly accomplish with stuff like college being unattainable.

Daniel’s and Johnny’s thoughts on Tory still fighting both make sense, which makes for a big moral dilemma that viewers can debate cuz I definitely see both sides. Karate can help her deal with the loss as sports often help channel feelings but she is also not in a stable place so maybe not.

Tory wanting to reconnect with Kreese after losing her mom because she is alone with a little brother now and Kreese has always put her on a pedestal, he stepped in when her landlord was being predatory, and she is upset with Daniel Johnny and Amanda for stopping the fight for team captain. She is understandably reverting back to her dark outlook on life wherein she thinks everyone is against her.

Devon sabotaging Kenny with laxative, but Kenny thinking it was Anthony.

Demetri being mad at Hawk for backing out on MIT.

Mr. Miyagi not being a total saint. Finding out people aren’t perfect is hard, but realistic. But I do think more about this subplot will be revealed.

Things in cobra Kai season 6 part 1 that DON’T make sense:

Everyone in general is way too forgiving in this show. Carmen accepting Robby into the family life so easily when he almost k*lled Miguel, Sam and Tory ever being in the same room together let alone Amanda and Daniel allowing it is insane for both moms.

Where is Robby’s biological mom? We need at least one scene or mentioning of her even if she is still in rehab.

Johnny’s little outburst at the car dealership where he says he’s going to start his own dealership.

I get that only a few people can represent each country in the Sekai Taikai and therefore Daniel and Johnny need to pool their students together. I like that Johnny wants to prevent Kreese from having any legacy and therefore agreeing to call the group Miyagi-Do and keep Miyagi teachings, but rivalries are still just too inevitable and it’s annoying to see Daniel and Johnny try to work together again. They already tried that in a previous season and quickly found out it wouldn’t work.

[bluektw]

You know, I've been thinking about the CK family (Tory, Robby, Kenny and Devon) and how the dynamic will probably not change in the next season but it should change.

I mean, if you think about it, right now, Robby is not the best person to talk to Kenny about Cobra Kai, to Robby, his stay in Cobra Kai was kinda of a way to an end, so he doesn't have/doesn't understand this deep and even kinda toxic relationship Kenny has with not only Cobra Kai the dojo, but Silver himself.

And guess who mirrors this exact experience? Devon.

She had a connection with Tory, not with Cobra Kai the Dojo, and she didn't even have a deep enough connection to Kim, in any way, to her too, the relationship she has with CK was kinda the same, a way to an end, she wanted to learn from the person who won her.

Robby and Devon would understand each other a lot better right now, mostly cause to both, not only CK was just a means to something, and also it wasn't as deep as the connection they had with their previous Dojos. They don't understand what is like to have this toxic dependency to CK and one of their Senseis.

Now, Kenny had a different experience, it was his first Dojo, and he developed a (rather toxic) relationship with Silver, he became his Sensei (especially after Robby left CK) the person Kenny can rely on, the person that will push him forward (even if it is a bad thing), someone he feels like understands him in a way others don't. He felt the power CK had, and he relished in it.

Kenny has a deep connection with CK dojo/Sensei/Philosophy, and who has the same exact connection? Tory.

They have some of the deepest connections (If not the deepest ones) to a Dojo/Sensei. They felt they had someone they could count on, but later had been betrayed by them, by the person they thought had their back.

Tory also has been in only one dojo, has a connection with Kreese (while slightly less toxic) that is pretty much identical to Kenny and Silver, someone they could relate as they went through the similar shit, someone who had her back, who helped her with stuff (The landlord and Amanda in a way) and who seemed to understand her struggles better than anyone

Tory's connection with CK philosophy has been getting weaker, but is still there, and Kenny's, mostly cause Silver lied about the tournament, is also beginning to crack. They both are going through the same feeling of hollowness after losing something that meant the world to them (Tory since the All Valley and Kenny by the end of Season 5), they basically lost their Dojo and their Sensei all in one bat, both feeling like no one has their back now.

So, if anything, I wish we could see the different dynamic here, making Kenny get closer to Tory in a way, maybe she can be the one to "bring him back to the light side" or at least be the one bridge between him and Robby, because she can understand and relate a lot with what he's going through in a way Robby can't.

But I'm not abandoning my hc that Devon doesn't like Robby, so I imagine that with time they would realize that they had the same experience with CK, but not before some argues.

(I've seen people saying that Devon will want to learn from Sam in S6, and while I can see where this comes from I don't think it will happen, if she does end up wanting to learn Miyagi Do like this I would like to be with Robby)

[crimsonblackrose]

.

I wonder if the gave the guy who kinda bullies Kreese the same type of banana boat car that Mr. Miyagi drove and then gave Daniel on purpose.

I think it's supposed to be yellow but with the filter they put over it I'm not sure. No, I pulled up a shot I took of the banana boat and it's the same interior and everything.

Kreese's mom killed herself.

Kreese I was bullied and the worlc was cruel so I became a bully and cruel myself.

Everyone is back to white belt. And there's a bunch of kids now.

There's also a new girl.

Which is wild to me. What parent would be like, oh man there's so much violence right now with karate, a kid got put in a coma, let me enroll my kid in karate. ????

Lol and this is from your pale friend demetri. 🤣 Carmen, I adore you. She also listened to everything Demetri said, like don't leave it near the window because the plastic isn't uv resistant. Such a Demetri little caveat. Looks like an issue of Dungeon Lord, which Demetri loves but no clue if Miguel likes it.

That's from the LaRusso's.

Where's sensei? Well he was there, he bashed his head into a corner of a metal paper towel dispenser because he had no other way to see you, talked to you before he was caught and kicked out again. Now he's trying to find his son.

How far away is this place that Shannon's at that Johnny fell asleep? Though who knows, dude might just be exhausted from punishing himself.

Daniel keeps advil in the glove compartment. Daniel, you live in LA why would you keep medication in the glove compartment. Medication is affected by temperature. With the LA heat, that stuff probably doesn't work as much any more or it's changed.

Yoga, painting, trays of breakfast. Nice rehab: Malibu Canyon Recovery.

Lol I mapped it, it's only 16 minutes away from Reseda. Johnny's just exhausted.

She totally thought Daniel was dropping of his partner for rehab.

Shannon's journaling, Amanda sent her lavender essential oil helped with her insomnia. She's also going to kudos and concerns and has a life coach. She wanted to look for Robby but was advised against it.

man this must suck for Johnny. Daniel at his core is someone who wants to help people and he's helping pretty much everyone around him, but spent so much time fighting Johnny when Johnny wanted to just run his business. Like Daniel was Daniel at his core in episode 1. With the car. But between that and this point, except for the occasional run into each other because we have to via Amanda, the don't get along.

Johnny don't knock it, it's working for her, let it work. Plus 99% sure it's not her money but Daniel's.

Johnny's vacation idea was a monster truck show and he loved Truckasaurus.

They're bickering, they always bicker. I'm glad Shannon stood up for her rehab though.

Kreese you are too giddy about this trick. Bert named him Clarence. Rip Clarence.

This is messed up Kreese. Bert should've taken that hamster and run. But he uses it to weed out the kids from his dojo with soft hearts, which is pretty much all the new kid kids I spotted.

It is a pretty snake. But still, messed up Kreese.

Poor Bert. He's been kicked of teh team.

Hawk is the new Miguel. But like Kreese's Miguel at least for the moment.

Kreese decorated with war photos, military photos and a grenade????

The interior of Tory's apartment looks an awful lot like Johnny's and Carmen's apartment interiors. She's in apartment 2.

Tory's mom is on dialysis

Apparently the reason why Tory isn't in more trouble is because she's taking care of her little brother and mom. And she's already working doubles. She also has a probation officer and this guy is such a creep. He essentially is saying pay rent or sleep with him which she's still a minor. She's got community service hours, probation and studying for her GED.

Robby's 'friends' are in juvie and I think they're there because of their fight with Daniel. RSP is the name of the place. They're now scared of Mr. LaRusso and I guess not so much of Johnny because he showed up already beaten up.

They'd scam people at Tech Town in Panarama City.

I hate that the doctor had this conversation with Miguel's mom on the other side of his window and not somewhere private like his office.

Johnny being annoying with the corn nuts. 😂

A lead, what are you Tango and Cash, movie recommendation I guess from Amanda.

I love that Johnny knows the reference but thinks he has to lean over and talk to Daniel's lap to say hi to Amanda.

Johnny: I'm not lying to your wife for you.

And we've lost 1 corn nut in Daniel's car.

Kreese is going to let Tory attend classes for free. How very...Miyagi/Daniel of him.

Betsy's abusive ex's name was David. I really want to know which college he's supposed to be attending, but I can't tell with the letterman.

Lol David punches his friend.

young kreese to betsy: Need a lift, then back to modern day with Johnny getting gas with a sign that says lift. I see what you did there.

Daniel's to good for gas station food. I have no clue what Johnny asked for, almost looks like a churro.

Hey look at that, Amanda told Daniel to tell Johnny something and he actually did.

amount of corn nuts lost in Daniel's car: unknown as the whole bag hit Daniel in teh face and they flew behind him as Johnny peeled out of the gas station.

And Johnny broke Daniel's mirror. Bud, even if he's got insurance, Johnny that's still arguably a hit and run because you hit someone else's car, and insurance probably won't cover it because you were driving on the wrong side of the road when it happened. Sure, you're covered arguably by permissive use, but still, that was technically a hit and run.

Another great fight scene! Daniel's got the brain cell because this time Johnny's on papa bear mode, of where is my son.

Johnny pushes Daniel out of the way, but that also means the guy with the chain can fight Daniel.

Another guy goes for Johnny's neck, but this time with a chain. Whose keep score? I lost count. Third time? Fourth?

Hey look a sucessful: Duck. Daniel ducked and Johnny hit a guy with a wrench, which ow.

Oh hey, Daniel's in his first choke hold of the series.

Amazing team work.

Yes, Johnny should've stopped, but at the same time Daniel you didn't stop when you thought Sam was in danger or calm down even when Johnny tried to ask you to.

Johnny is right, you included Johnny on it. Saying you can't believe he taught kids isn't fair. This is his son. You'd do the same for Sam, you literally did before. And Johnny is going through it. Saying look how Robby turned out isn't quite fair to Daniel because again, what happened to Miguel was an accident. But this...

That's a low blow Daniel. Uncalled for. Which Daniel like instantly realizes because Johnny just completely crumples at that and takes the van, now his van because he never returns it, and leaves.

Sometimes Daniel's just...mean.

This is one of those moments where I go: GO GRANDPA KREESE GO!

Also whoever did the transitions, while I saw what you did last time, hate this one. Hate it so much.

I want to know what the arrangement is? Free rent? Or just a buffer for this week.

That is a terrible lunch Miggy. A cheese hot dog, beans, carrots, green beans and something red.

Johnny kept his hospital bracelet from last time so he could sneak in.

Surprisingly 100% the truth. He also got into a fight with two guys in a parking garage, but he also did take on the paper towel dispenser.

lol he's just listing them off. Couple goons at chop shop, paper towel despenser, some dudes in a parking garage. Guys just picking a fight with everything and everyone.

😭😭😭😭 He did what he was taught, showed mercy and now he might never walk again.

MIGGGYYYYYY 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Robby's eating with Shannon. Looks like he's eating a half eaten sandwich. Poor kid probably hasn't eaten in days.

Awww the way Robby curled in on himself, scared then made himself smaller when he saw Daniel.

Robby, again, accident. Any one of the other fights could've ended up even more terrible. You didn't realize the railing was right there. You were scared and terrified and horrified but what happened.

First thing he wants to know after apologizing and promising to pay Daniel back for the van is to ask if Sam is okay.

I do appreciate that Daniel tells Robby that everyone's worried about him, even his dad. and then apologizes to him and promises to help him. that he talked to a lawyer and tries to explain the reduced sentence, but of course Robby hears the police coming first and feels betrayed. "You just kept me talking so I wouldn't leave."

Daniel promises to visit every day. But that trust is broken.

Johnny had multiple classes of students he trained and cultivated, and Kreese has kicked all but these ones out.

Kreese calls Betsy Doll-face.

He's off to basic training in Monterey (about a half hour away)

Kreese monologuing very quietly while all the kids are shouting. 😂I get that it's supposed to be them listening to it, but with how loud they're shouting, I kinda doubt they'll hear him at his conversation level of speaking rather than speaking louder.

[taughtdefense]

this entire day has been a very carefully coordinated effort on multiple fronts, with only your eldritch friends, your parents, dami, johnny & mr. larusso knowing the full gravity of today’s event. yasmine, emma, light, moon, dami, aspen, calla, celessa, & cosima have been on distracting sam & tory duty since early this morning ( only emma, dami & light know what’s happening ). according to light, they're about twenty minutes out from your current location. as for ciro, icarus, charlie & rhydian, they’re on distracting miguel & robby duty. your other friends like hawk, stef, talia, demetri, nova, chase & landon have no clue what’s happening, but they'd gone with, too. of course. they're also twenty minutes out. all of your eldritch friends are highly aware of the events of today, & helped you plan everything out, accounting for every little potentiality in the books, & using their abilities to ensure nothing goes wrong. they won’t get stuck in traffic or hit every single light from mission creek ( where the girls had traveled to ) or beacon hills ( where the boys had traveled to ) back to the valley, for example. both towns are two hours away from the valley, in opposite directions from the other. by your calculations, all of your friends will arrive at miyagi-do dojo at the same time. light & ciro had asked sam, robby, miguel & tory to dress at least somewhat nice for the day out in the respective towns. no jeans or t-shirts, period. both miguel & tory had been confused, but obliged.

you’d been very, almost indescribably nervous asking mr. larusso if it was in acceptable taste to use the miyagi-do dojo as a proposal spot. you didn’t want to step on his toes, or anything like that.

in true ethan wilson fashion, you’d dropped by the larusso household pretty much unprompted, then asked your loaded question. he literally froze in the middle of stirring the ricotta gnudi he’d been making for himself, you & amanda — anthony & sam had been out of the house, thank god. after getting over his complete shock, he’d placed a hand on your shoulder, too choked up to verbally respond for a few moments. then he’d given a tiny nod to inform you that he really liked the idea, his face all soft & emotional, getting a little misty-eyed as he looked into your eyes. you’d grinned & hugged him tightly, & he said he was both excited & so proud of you.

in lieu of hiring a stranger, you’d even asked sulien to be the professional photographer, to which he readily agreed. he’s been snapping pictures of everything being set up since the morning. mr. larusso, chozen & johnny unanimously decided to give the teens a day off a few days ago, using the slowly-approaching upcoming sekai taikai tournament as a smokescreen… even if it’s true - they do genuinely want everyone to rest up, because they’ve all been training hard.

light & charlie have been giving you updates on your friends since this morning — all of your eldritch friends have been very, very careful with their words/actions over the day, even if they don't act any different than they normally do, proceeding as normal. miguel & tory are in the dark; they have been for the past few days. you'd opted out, wanting to get some stuff done around the apartment, or spending time with wade & vanessa. that hadn't exactly been a lie, but it wasn't the full truth. you've been at miyagi-do dojo since this afternoon.

speaking of the miyagi-do dojo, it’s been a bit of a frenzy getting everything prepared. while you & your eldritch friends carefully orchestrated the day’s events, vanessa has been handling the dojo makeover side of things. it’s utterly beautiful. you’ve complimented your mother for her decorating skills hundred of times. she would have kissed the top of your head each time like she normally does, but she didn’t want to mess up your neatly styled hair. the punching bags & other karate equipment has been removed from the property to a storage unit nearby so it's out of the way, the potted bonsai trees that are scattered throughout the dojo have been painstakingly, carefully tended to. there is a path of softly glowing, hanging lanterns leading towards the koi pond, complete with a recently rolled out, unsullied white carpet from the dojo steps to the pond, which wade had cleaned almost an hour ago.

a ton of fairy lights are tastefully hung up around the back of the dojo, hanging on the siding above & around the doors, & the dojo’s siding had been repainted yesterday evening, specifically for this reason. the inside of the dojo has been meticulously cleaned from top to bottom, like it's brand new. in addition to the potted bonsai plants that line the carpet, illuminated by the lanterns, there are white lotus flower petals scattered across the entire dojo, most notably from the sparring deck to the koi pond. behind you as your background, there's a large, intricate, circular metal art piece of the sun & moon, adorned with fresh, dark green ivy & more white lotus flowers tied around the top of the sun. the design of Intricate Harmony had been a massive, time-consuming endeavor; but constantly having to make excuses as to why you couldn't hang out with your friends became tiring very quickly, so you'd caved & used your powers to make your artistic vision come to life. the piece you'd made looks like it belongs in a famous art museums in the world. you're quite proud of it.

you know that with the use of your powers, this whole process of cleaning up the miyagi-do dojo would have gone much faster, but everyone - including johnny, bobby, kevin, mike & deanna - had been understandably insistent on chipping in with the process. you don’t blame any of them for a second, & multiple sets of hands are better than one. it's a good bonding experience, not to mention. besides, johnny’s firstborn son, his son figure, & his daughter figures getting proposed to? of course he’d want to help out in any way that he possibly can. he’d even freshly sanded the sparring deck this morning, long before anyone else woke up, even before the bulk of the main preparations began, all without a single word of complaint.

the ring box you're holding isn't a traditional one by any means - you don't have enough hands to hold four ring boxes at the same time, which is why you settled for a custom-made, larger one. the ring box is a heavy wooden box of the highest quality teakwood possible, with each of their rings fit perfectly inside. ( currently, your own ring is hidden in one of the small drawers in miyagi-do; it’d been stowed away in damiana’s apartment until an hour ago. )

in a move that surprised all of your eldritch friends, you'd trusted humans with the creation of the ring box, paying top dollar & weeks in advance to make sure it was nothing but quality. you'd trusted humans - you were the one who gave them autonomy, after all. the box itself came out beautifully, but you added a few personalized touches here & there. engraved on top of the box is all your loves' initials in a fancy font. RK & SL on the top line with their rings, then MD & TN on the bottom, all evenly spaced. the velvet that keeps their rings safe isn't the typical, boring black color, but each of your loves favorite colors: green & pink for robby & sam, then red & yellow for miguel & tory. in the middle of the box, a small sliver of dark blue velvet yarn is fashioned an infinity symbol. that's carefully, evenly glued on top of the colors, not a single fiber out of place. because your hands had been trembling ever-so-slightly from excitement, ciro decided to step in & help make that final touch a reality.

the early evening provides a perfect, romantic setting. the sunset is gorgeous, painting the sky all different colors. your parents, johnny & mr. larusso have been noticing your fidgeting for the past hour, constantly bouncing your leg or shaking out your hands to get the nervous energy out. luckily, everyone had enough time to go home & clean themselves up, returning for the event with plenty of time to spare before the other teens arrive for the main event. they’d even changed their clothes to semi-formal attire, rather than their shorts & t-shirts they’d been wearing for the all-day preparation of transforming the beloved dojo. with the final touches in place, there's no much to do other than wait... & keep an eye on you. vanessa is talking quietly with carmen, rose, shannon & deanna near the sparring deck, but you’ve noticed their eyes cut over to you, keeping a read on your emotional state.

to say you’re nervous is a huge fucking understatement. you’ve never felt this nervous in any of your lives, & you know that you never will feel this severely nervous again. it’s a damn good thing you’re literally immune to getting physically ill, or sweating. if you were human, you think you would have dropped the ring box at least twice from how sweaty your hands would have been, waiting in anticipation.

you glance up from the ring box when you hear johnny’s footsteps, giving him a small, clearly nervous smile even as your hands reflexively tighten around the ring box, pulling it closer to your body like you’re scared he’ll try to snatch it away from you. johnny notices, only giving you a comforting smile. your father-figure cleans up nicely, his hair neatly styled.

❝ easy, son. ❞ he soothes you gently, & your shoulders tremble slightly. again, if you were truly human, you’d have been sweating.

❝ what if t-they say no? what if they say no? ❞ you ask quietly, repeating your words due to the sheer amount of nerves you have, dark brown eyes round & terrified of the very idea.

❝ they won’t. ❞ he responds softly. ❝ if there’s one thing i know, it’s that they love you with everything they have. you’re absolutely devoted to them, right? ❞ when you nod immediately, a little surprised he could think otherwise, he continues: ❝ i might not be the sharpest tool in the shed- ❞ you quirk an eyebrow at the phrase, & you hear your dad let out a short laugh from nearby, exclaiming jovially how he was the one to teach johnny what that meant, ❝ -but you’ve all been through so much crap together as people, which is what brought you five together in the first place. ❞

❝ you guys healed together, & grew together. not only as a couple, but as people. that amount of love you five have for each other is remarkable, ethan. ❞ mr. larusso adds with a comforting smile, walking over to you. he’s very careful as he places a hand on your shoulder. you inhale shakily, shifting your weight from one foot to the other.

❝ daniel’s absolutely right. ❞ johnny agrees. mr. larusso blinks in surprise, & his smile widens a little bit. ❝ i think i can speak for everyone here that it’s literally no frickin’ surprise to any of us that you decided to take such a big life step so early. i’m confident that none of them will say no. & if i know my boy as well as i think i do, robby’s probably even kiss you before you can get a word out of your speech to the four. that’s an unmistakable yes in my books. ❞ he side-eyes mr. larusso, silently asking him to place his bets. mr. larusso rolls his eyes when johnny says something about a $5 that’s on the line for it, laughing lightly once mr. larusso silently agrees to the bet with his own: sam’s going to start crying tears of joy the second she walks into the backyard. you smile slightly once you hear sulien snap a picture of mr. larusso & johnny comforting you. you find that you’re not as nervous as you’d been moments ago. it feels like a wright has been lifted off your chest.

vanessa’s phone chimes with a text from celessa. two minutes until their arrivals. she announces as such, loud enough for everyone to hear. your eyes widen, your currently very real heart-rate spiking. mr. larusso squeezes your shoulder & johnny affectionately pats your cheek before stepping away from you. your friends & family quickly move into their designated positions around the carpet, sulien giving you a gentle smile, which makes you feel a little better. bobby, kevin & deanna give you comforting smiles, too, which only improves your confidence.

you can do this.

only a few minutes apart from each other, various cars get to the miyagi-do dojo. the front is silent — the vintage cars mr. larusso had been working on have been moved to one side of the lot, allowing for everyone else’s vehicles to park in one area. with your powers, you’d made the parking lot even bigger, long before you stepped foot into the dojo for the first time. it hadn’t been for this specific moment, but for your friends’ sakes, what with how many of your friends would eventually join miyagi-do. years later, it’d clearly been the right call to make.

chase scowls slightly as he notices the amount of cars already in the front area. he recognizes his dad’s car - their parents hadn’t said anything about being here. but he’d trusted ciro, light, dami, shadow & gray when they all texted the group chat, saying there was a change of plans: rather than heading to their houses or ethan’s apartment, they’re going to miyagi-do. why everyone’s here, though, is a mystery — did something bad happen? he glances in the rearview mirror at robby, silently asking him if he has any clue as to what’s going on.

inside emma’s car, tory looks at sam, then looks towards bree in the passenger seat. bree blinks, shrugging. ❝ that’s odd. ❞ bree murmurs. everyone piles out of their respective vehicles, hawk wrapping his arm around moon’s shoulder, giving bree a fist bump in greeting.

tory immediately walks over to miguel & quickly kisses his cheek in greeting, having not seen him all day. miguel smiles softly at tory, then reaches for sam’s hand, lacing their fingers together. he then looks at robby, frowning slightly.

❝ uh, do you know what’s going on? ❞ he queries to them. tory shrugs her shoulders, looking towards the closed dojo doors with a small frown. ciro is carefully watching everyone’s reactions as he shuts his car door, locking the vehicle. those in the know have perfect poker faces. it’s not a hard feat to accomplish in ciro’s, shadow's & gray’s cases, but charlie, light & emma are doing a damn good job at hiding their own excitement. even rhydian is portraying the correct amount of curiosity, like he doesn’t know anything.

❝ we are not going to find out what is going on if we continue standing around here. ❞ ciro replies calmly as he puts his hands in his pockets, then nods towards the closed dojo doors. rhydian tilts his head slightly, but says nothing. but his kind eyes silently encourage miguel, sam, tory & robby to head in first.

@taughtpain

[shrinkthisviolet]

I've asked in the past what might differ if Sam, and not Tory, caught Silver paying off the referee. With a bit of time having passed, honestly the way I see things going in season 5 would be something to the effect of this:

Sam happens to see Silver and the referee through the blinds while on her way to grab her stuff from the locker room. She hears just enough to realize that she lost because she got cheated out of a win.

Sam tells her dad and Johnny about this. And they, plus Amanda and Chozen, spend the first half of the season building a case against Silver for rigging the tournament, and why they think the tournament should get a do-over. Thus, 5x05 sees Daniel bring Sam before the All-Valley committee to make the case that the season 4 AVT's results should be invalidated and a do-over tournament should be scheduled. Sam makes a speech to the AVT committee not unlike Miguel's town hall speech in 3x08, and just like she provided support for him there, he provides support for her here, helping her make the case for why she, and everyone else in Miyagi-Do, Eagle Fang and the other dojos, deserves a second chance.

Sam has to tread carefully here, considering that she's making these allegations speaking as the person who lost the girls' finals. So she has the uphill battle of knowing the potential optics of the second place finisher crying foul, and the possibility that the AVT committee will publicly spin her as a sore loser if she doesn't say the right things.

Fortunately, the committee are won over by Sam's case. They have known Daniel for years, not to mention there is the fact that Cobra Kai was banned after the 1985 tournament because of Silver's shenanigans there too. An announcement is made that "in light of Samantha LaRusso's allegations of bribery and match rigging, the 2019 All-Valley Tournament results have been invalidated. A do-over tournament is scheduled for the first weekend of September."

Tory is made to return her trophy, the last few episodes of season 5 are about the dojos all preparing for the new All-Valley, and the season finale is about this do-over All-Valley that climaxes in a Sam vs. Robby finals fight.

That's an interesting series of events for sure, but...that would also rely on the AVT committee not being as much of a joke as they were in s5 canon. I mean...really guys, gendered divisions now? Implying that no girls have fought in the AVT before s1?

(I guess that was the writers' implication, which...is not the progressive take they think it is. There's no way s1 was the first time there were female fighters)

Plus, we see in the show that the AVT committee frequently prioritizes Kreese (and Silver, I think? But definitely Kreese) over Daniel and Amanda (and Johnny, but at least that makes sense within the context of what canon has told us). Sam and Miguel managed to convince them in s3, but that's because they kept pushing and refused to budge...and the fact that Miguel was the victim of 2x10 who was in Cobra Kai under Johnny and Kreese helped too.

Oh, and given that Silver is known for bribing pretty much everyone who gets in his way, it's not unreasonable to think he'd do the same to the committee. So while this would be cool to see in theory, the execution probably wouldn't be quite like this.

[postmoderntongues]

Its hard when somebody very very close to you has done something unspeakable. There's grief. There's cherished memories and love that doesnt always just evaporate on the spot like you think it will. Even when you yourself are their victim sometimes part of you needs to keep the relationship going if only so you can segment a small fantasy world where your earth and entire sense of trust and reality wasn't shattered. I have a real good friend accused of some real heavy stuff atm and not the cool kind either the kind where if its true i hope somebody kills him and i haven't contacted him since finding out and will never look at him the same but i haven't blocked him and i wouldn't be unkind if he reached out to me because he was real with me when a lot of people weren't and showed me love and took me in and protected me in a lot of really bad situations i knew i was okay because the scariest person there loved me like only another CPTSD Cluster B can and hes done things that have completely changed HOW i saw him and there are certain boundaries ill always keep up to protect myself bc hes a bad guy but like honestly even if he does wind up getting locked up technically the Christian thing to do would be send him a letter or two a month and some good paperbacks like ive had friends and family who like got caught up in some BAD shit of all kinds my whole life I have guys whose weddings i was the flower girl in who are like i cannot stress this enough but literally what most people picture when they try to justify prison being substandard living situations and not just loss of free movement throughout the community and containment of people too dangerous to participate.

Especially when you are a trauma survivor, its tempting to process them facing justice as "their trauma" When you already know somebody had done a lot of really bad things and maybe some potentially soul-damning ones now and they've only ever been really good to you and even protected you from other people who would have committed damnable crimes of their own against you if he hadn't intervened its hard to just disown somebody no matter how bad the thing is you'd be surprised with where you think your line is compared to where it actually is if its there at all once real shit goes down with somebody you been through real shit with.

My evangelical-raised religious trauma/psychosis is telling me god is testing the strength of my belief in carrying out his commands in my personal life however i can and the strength of the capacity for love that I claim to possess. I don't think that's a feeling that secular people dont also experience in some way and just word differently as a trauma reaction to finding out somebody you loved and trusted did to somebody the worst thing that was ever done to you.

Tory deserves patience right now and space to heal and i hope she isn't bullied into making a statement before she is in a place to and has fully processed it but she deserves compassion and grace right now to cope and process this in her own time and we might not agree in political theory with every choice she makes under the intoxication of such intense grief from a political theory point of view but shes not a politician shes some lady who made really good art about her PTSD. You don't know until it is you and it feels different and the way you handle it is different every time. Sometimes psychological survival is more of a matter of coping adequately rather than responding correctly. Sometimes psychological survival looks selfish or includes a stage of denial or bargaining or misplaced anger/blame. Whatever Tory does, however she responds, give her grace. Immediate responses aren't permanent long term most of the time anyway.

Also people are already trying to bring Amanda Palmer down with him, she was a mentally ill woman in a marriage to a known abuser do you think she wasn't the one woman he didn't abuse when she was the one he had the most formal permission to? How many of even our own powerless zero-influence fathers managed that? Was she an accomplice/enabler or can we recognize that even among successful artists abused wives live in silence and terror. How many of our mothers lived like that? She wasn't Karla Homolka, she was a mentally ill woman who for all we know barely escaped without something horrible happening to her (if nothing horrible happened that we just dont know of which isnt impossible either). Fear can coerce somebody into silence about very big secrets, sometimes the worse the secret the scarier it is to think about doing anything but keeping it. Amanda Palmer is more than likely another of his victims, not some kind of art scene Myra Hindley.

god, the details in that new Nail Gaiman story are revolting. He is gross, he is a violent rapist, he is trash

trust me when I tell you that unless you have intensely morbid curiosity, you don't need to read it. It is stomach-churning in a very real way. But tbh I think he should probably drop dead.

I feel awful for his fans and the people in his life who thought he was a different kind of person. Tori Amos' recent interview on this made me so sad for her and others who felt like they knew someone only to realize they really, really didn't. I'm devastated for her who made neil her child's godparent,because no matter how close you think you are to someone and how well you think you know them and how long you've known them -- Billy Joel was spot on when he wrote "The Stranger" because EVERYONE has a Stranger that no one knows but themselves. You can never truly, truly know someone.

Amanda Palmer, though? Thoroughly unsurprised that she seemed to be at the very least complicit. She has always given off the most rancid of vibes.

[sensei-venus]

Nosey Sensei LaRusso (1/2)

(Unedited) (Daniel being way to nosey, Johnny being Johnny and not paying attention to his kid, Hinted secretly dating,Pregnant!Single Mom!Reader)

Daniel first noticed something was different with Robby when a car showed up at the dojo one day.

It was after a lesson and everyone was grouped up talking before they all went their separate ways. Daniel had a habit of taking a minute to watch of the kids after class was over. It just felt right to watch them for a good moment to make sure they where all doing ok. Johnny usually headed back inside to help clean up after taking to Miguel for a bit.

Daniel’s eyes scanned the yard, his eyes following Miguel, Sam, Tory and Demetri who where all talking, Chris and a few of the other kids talked in another group on the other side of the yard. Daniel raised a eyebrow when a small car pulled up, a tiny little gray car he had never seen before. He didn’t remember seeing a car like that picking anyone up from the dojo before. Taking a mental step back he looked around for the one student he didn’t see talking to anyone.

Robby.

Robby waved to Sam’s small group before walking over to the gray car. Brown eyes tracked the person who stepped out of the drivers side door.

It was a girl from the looks of it, she looked around the same age as the other kids. She was a bit shorter, maybe a bit taller then Sam. She had on a baggy sweater and jeans. She walked over to the passenger side of the car and waited as Robby made his way over to her. She smiled as the boy got closer. Finally Robby made it to the car, he spoke a few words to the girl.

Robby smiled at her and they both exchanged a few words before he opened the car door for her and she slowly got in. He closed the door and walked around to the drivers side and slid into the car.

Before Daniel knew it the two where gone, the small car speeding off out of the driveway.

“Is Robby seeing someone new? Has he said anything?”

Johnny huffed as he threw some dirty sweat towels into the dojo washing machine.

“Kid doesn’t tell me hardly anything these days. But if I’m being honest it wouldn’t surprise me if he was and just didn’t tell me.” Daniel rubbed at his chin as he watched Johnny throw in the last of the dirty laundry. Maybe he was just over thinking things. If he really wanted to know what was going on with the dirty blond boy he would have to try and find a more reliable source.

The LaRusso family dinner that night was normal, small talk about things that had happened that day. What the kids where up to at school, how the dealership was doing, stuff like that. It was a nice peaceful environment.

Daniel picked at his plate for a moment before taking a sip of his drink, he gently set it back down as he looked over at Sam. She was eating her own food and trying not to laugh at something Anthony had said. He cleared his throat making both kids and Amanda look at him. Amanda sipped on her wine as she listened to her husband.

“So I have a weird question, but I want a real answer.”

Sam raised a brow, her father looking directly at her as he spoke.

“Is….Is Robby seeing someone new? At school I mean.”

He honestly didn’t want to ask Sam out of all people about a boy that made such a impact in her life regarding dating and her love life. But he needed a answer on the matter.

“Well I mean- I guess? I don’t know if they are actually dating or not but he’s around her all the time at school and I think they hang out afterwards too. He hasn’t really been hanging out with us kids at the dojo a lot. Maybe they are dating?”

“So who is she? Is there a reason he hasn’t said anything about her to anyone? I talked to Johnny about it and he has no idea, then again it's Johnny do I don't think Robby would even think about mentioning a girlfriend.”

Sam took a moment to reply back. Her facial muscles flexed for a moment like she was trying to pick her words carefully.

“I- it could be because she's you know....” Daniel raised his own brow as he tried to fall what his daughter was trying to say. Amanda cocked her head as well watching Sam fumble a bit. Sam rolled her eyes as she made a round hand gesture toward her belly. She bit her lower lip as Daniel clearly didn't follow.

“Ohhh she preggers! I think I'm getting better at charade’s.” Anthony said as he took a bite at his food. Seeming proud of the fact he gussed what she was trying to say before their parents.

Sam zipped her lip as she went back to poking at her food. She didn’t know if she should actually be telling her dad about Robby and Reader’s relationship. She didn’t even really know if she was being completely honest with herself. Robby and Reader had been close for a few months now, she saw them around school a lot.

When Robby sat with the group at lunch Reader was usually right next to him the whole time. She didn’t seem to stray to far away from him. She even witnessed him walking her to class a lot. She usually caught him talking to her while carrying her backpack so she didn’t strain her back.

Daniel mumbled to himself for a good minute trying to take in the new information.

“I have to ask now, is it his?”

“Dad no! Robby would have definitely said something by now if it was his baby. She transferred school while she was pregnant. She’s kinda new.”

Daniel just gave a small nod before turning back to his food. His eyes peered over to his wife who was currently staring him down, wine glass in hand. She gave him a raised brow and a face that definitely screamed “ You really thought”. He rolled his eyes at her before taking a bite of his dinner.

With this new information in his pocket, he definitely had to find out the full story between Robby and this new girl.

At least before Johnny caught on and possibly rips the kid a new one for not saying anything about possibly dating a pregnant girl. Who knows how the blond moron would handle that.

[supergirlx55]

Welp, I clearly need to update my profile... but I think I'd have to do that on desktop, and I'm too lazy busy right now. So I'll just do this, instead...

Hello there, Karateverse fandom! I'm Supes, and I'd like to make some friends. 💜

My favorite character is Daniel, with Johnny as a close second... but I love pretty much the entire cast (yes, even Stingray).

My OTPs are Daniel/Johnny, Bobby/Johnny, Sam/Tory, and Dutch/Tommy, with Daniel/Bobby/Johnny and Daniel/Johnny/Amanda as my OT3s. I ship other stuff too and I'm open to most pairings, but I have a particular soft spot for rarepairs. I'm also very interested in the OG Cobras (please come talk to me about those guys!).

If you like character analysis, reading/writing/discussing fanfic, or simply having interesting and intelligent conversations about Cobra Kai and the Karate Kid movies, then we might get along. On the other hand, if you like to blatantly ignore canon, bash characters or ships, kink-shame, or police the way other people enjoy fandom... then we're probably not a good match.

(Also, sometimes I ramble have a lot to say. Please be prepared for that.)

As for me: I write fanfiction and occasionally draw fanart -- though I'm not always good at posting my finished work. This is something I'm working on! I may talk about my Karateverse art and fic on here, and even share story excerpts, in the future... we'll see. But if you're curious about the stuff I haven't posted yet (whether finished or a WIP), just ask! In the meantime: you can find me on Ao3 under the same username. 💜

Anyway, if I seem like someone you'd like to get to know, hit me up on Discord? It's Supergirlx55#7323.

Or if you don't have a Discord though you should, then you're welcome to talk to me on here, too. DMs are always open. I just wanna make new pals and do what I can to keep the fandom alive!

.

[messymindofmine]

The fact that Sam is a teenager and makes mistakes and the fact that she does have issues holding herself accountable for her actions are two things that can be true at the same time. Just like the fact that Tory has a lot of issues that contribute to her anger and her behavior and the fact that it does not make her behavior right at all are two things that can be true at the same time. I really wish people would stop pitting these girls against each other. Neither one of them is bad. They're both just young. Sam did behave in a rather snobby way to Tory from the beginning. Add in the fact that Miguel was hung upon Sam even while he dated Tory, it's not surprising that Tory had anger towards Sam. That said, it does not make the way she attacked her okay at all. It's not surprising given what Tory's life has been like that her go-to is violence actually. That scene with Aisha where she talks about how she's used her bracelet to fight off a guy getting handsy with her is is actually a pretty good clue. For Tory, fighting is how she survives. Kreese took that and exploited it. Sam, on the other hand, wasn't very friendly to Tory upon meeting her but that was about it. While she does make some remarks that honestly do reek of privilege a bit (everybody's got a sob story), it certainly does not warrant being attacked the way Tory attacked her. I hesitate to say that it was all one-sided bc Sam clearly did feel the need to compete with Tory too (the drinking competition in 2x09) but again, she never actually attacked Tory. As far as Sam and Miguel's kiss goes, I personally feel that while Tory's anger is understandable, it's something she should have taken up with Miguel since he was her boyfriend. Also, kissing someone else's boyfriend is bad but it does not warrant being dragged down stairs or having someone slash you with their spiky bracelet. I like Tory and I like Sam (yes I know I criticise her for certain thing, especially when it comes to Robby) but I think both are inherently good people who are just caught up in really messy situations. Plus, it's important to remember that for all of Sam's snobbery, she really has no idea what Tory's life is actually like. All she knows is that this is the girl that has attacked her, almost disfigured her, and broke into her home. Seriously, however much I like and sympathize with Tory, I can not defend that. Imagine if Anthony had been there. And it wasn't just Sam who was affected by that. The whole family actually felt unsafe in their own home. Tory is obviously young, angry and hurt but a lot of the stuff she's done is actually very concerning beyond simply being wrong. The fact that she would go to such lengths to get back at a girl her own age is actually a bit disturbing to me. But Tory isn't a bad person either. We have seen how once Amanda started helping her, she did begin to change her behavior. She actually kept her temper in check at the beginning of prom and only reacted once Sam started the fight. She refused to cheat in the AVT. I do think Tory has a ways to go and I do think that she needs to make amends with Sam. But I also believe that both Sam and Tory are inherently good and deserve better than to be pitted against each other constantly

[ilikefandoms]

Family Dinner - Robby Keene

Request - Hi, it's me again. You could write something in which the reader and Robby are in a secret relationship and Daniel notices that boy's passionate gaze and is curious to know who the mysterious young woman is who was leaving him like this, then asks him to invite her to a family dinner . It turns out that Daniel didn't even imagine that this girl was the golden student of Cobra Kai, almost as relentless as Tory and Samantha's number one rival. Throughout dinner, the reader does her best not to provoke a scene, even with Sam's indiscreet insinuations about her being a bad person and to make matters worse, a conversation about sexual orientation arises in a very prejudiced way from Louie and she is extremely offended after a prejudiced comment about bisexuality (she is bisexual, Robby knows and accepts this), Daniel ends up being faster and goes after her, the two talk very cute (almost father and daughter) and the two end up giving each other very well . Anyway, after all that mixture of emotions that was the night, Robby takes the reader home which leads to a lot of affection and kisses on her part (deep down, under that badass exterior she is just a big monster of affection ❤). Sorry if it took too long hahaha.

Pronouns used - She/Her

A/N -  Disclaimer: I do not agree with anything that Louie says in this, it is purely for the storyline. I also kinda made Sam look like a bad guy...sorry Sam.

Warnings - Louie being a biphobic asshole, language

Word Count - 1593

You and Robby had a somewhat 'secret relationship'. You had both decided not to tell anyone, considering the rivalry between your respective dojos. Anyway, you were enjoying spending time with Robby alone.

Daniel had begun to get suspicious though. He had noticed that Robby had been acting different than usual, smiling at his phone, and getting home later. Daniel had made the fair assumption that Robby was in fact, seeing someone.

He had not-so subtilty brought up the question in conversation, taking Robby aback. Robby had admitted it though, and Mr Larusso had asked to meet this ‘Mystery Girl’, and asked Robby to invite you to family dinner.

So, here you were standing outside the Larusso’s house, having just texted Robby that you were here. You didn’t want Sam answering the door. 

Robby opened the door, “Hey babe, why didn’t you knock?”

“I didn’t want Sam or someone opening it to see me,” you shrugged, “I’m just nervous I guess, what with mine and Sam’s rivalry, with Cobra Kai. Everything,”

Robby wrapped his arms around you, “It’s gonna be ok, alright. If it ends up being too awkward or whatever, we can leave,” he reassured.

“Thank you,” 

He kissed your cheek, “Anytime. Ready to go in?” you nodded. Robby placed his hand in yours, and you walked in.

The Larusso’s house was beautiful, it had off-white walls, a mixture of hardwood and patterned flooring, and large windows. It was probably one of the nicest houses you’d ever been in.

“Hey Robby,” Amanda Larusso approached you, “This must be your girlfriend. I’m Amanda,”

“Y/N,” you said.

“it’s so great to meet you, Robby’s told us so much about you!” She said - even if this wasn’t true.

“No he hasn’t,” you said, with a weak chuckle.

“Okay, well... that’s true, but I hope to get to know you more today. Okay, we are eating outside today as it is a lovely night. Everyone else is already out there, make yourselves at home, and dinner will be ready in a few minutes,” she said, smiling.

You both thanked her, before heading outside to where everyone was talking. “Hey everyone,” Robby made your presence known.

“Hey Robby!” Daniel greeted, before laying his eyes on you, when his smile faded. It was no secret that you were the Golden Student of Cobra Kai, you had even been known to take Miguel and Tory in fights, and of course...Sam.

“What is she doing here?” Sam exclaimed, gesturing towards you.

Your grip on Robby’s hand tightened. You had expected this, so you decided to stand your ground, “I was invited,” you asserted.

“Who would invite you here?” Sam asked with narrowed eyes.

“Sam,” Robby said, in an attempt to calm her down. 

It was at this point that her eye’s travelled down to where yours and Robby’s hands were enlaced. “Don’t tell me you’re actually dating this bitch,”

“Sam!” Daniel scolded, and just before an argument could come out, Mrs Larusso arrived, holding trays of food.

“Am I interrupting something?” She asked, her eyebrows raised.

“No, mom. We’re fine,” Sam said, partially through gritted teeth.

**********

There had been evident silence since dinner had started, it was starting to get annoying, how Sam was giving you death glares from across the table. Anthony was doing the same, although he was just probably copying what Sam was doing.

Amanda then decided to break the silence, asking you a question “So, Y/N how did you and Robby meet?”

“We met at the skate park. Robby was tried to do a new trick, but it went wrong and his board ended up flying in my direction, he apologised, we started talking, and...here we are,” you replied, giving her a smile.

“Oh that’s sweet, and from what little Robby has said, you do karate?” she questioned.

“Yeah, I do,” you said, purposefully not saying your dojo’s name - even if Sam and Mr Larusso knew, you wanted to keep the dojo rivalry to a minimum.

“She’s top of her class as well,” Robby added, “She can easily beat me in a fight,” 

“Only because you fight dirty,” Sam uttered underneath her breath.

You ignored her, “I wouldn’t say easily,” you protested, “But, yeah I can totally kick your ass,” you said, letting out a small laugh. Sam rolled her eyes

“Wow, that’s really impressive. What dojo do you go to,” Mrs Larusso asked.

“Oh, um, Cobra Kai,” you said, somewhat trailing off towards the end.

“Oh. Okay, is this why this dinner is being so awkward?” she said, and no-one answered, “Obviously it is,” she mumbled.

“Aren’t they the dojo that dislocated Robby’s shoulder?” Louie asked.

“Technically that was just Hawk,” Robby defended.

“Still doesn’t excuse their shitty teaching methods,” Sam said quietly.

Your hand balled into a fist. Her snarky comments were starting to fuel your anger. Robby placed his hand over yours, gently rubbing his thumb over your knuckles - an action that he knew calmed you, and gave you a reassuring smile.

“Y/N, are you new to town? I can’t recall seeing you anywhere,” Amanda questioned, seemingly ignoring her daughters comments.

“Yeah, I only moved here 6 months ago. My mom got a new job,” you explained.

“Oh, what does you mom do?"

“She’s a real estate agent,” you replied.

“Oh, that’s cool,”

**********

Conversation slowly picked up from there, although that didn’t stop Sam from making remarks. It was like she was trying to get people to think you were a bad person, saying stuff like ‘Dad, I’m glad that you taught me and Robby the right way of karate’.

It was honestly taking a toll on you, you had to work hard to make a good impression, and not act out and make a scene.

“Mom, did I tell you that Moon has a girlfriend now?” Sam asked her mother.

“Oh, that’s lovely,” 

“Yeah, it’s this Piper. She’s nice,” she explained.

“Moon is the girl that was dating that Hawk guy?” Louie butted in.

“Yeah,”

“Was she just gay all along then?”

“No, she’s just bisexual,” Sam said, furrowing her eyebrows at Louie’s question.

“Sam, come on. Bisexuality isn’t real,” you fists balled as Louie continued, “People are either gay or straight, you can’t like both, that’s just... unnatural,”

“Fuck this!” You yelled. You rose from your seat, and stormed out of the back yard.

“Louie, what the fuck?” Sam, and Amanda said in unison. Robby sat there glaring at Louie for a few seconds, before standing up to go after you. Daniel put a hand on his shoulder, and muttered an “I’ll go,” and went after you. Meanwhile, Amanda was kicking Louie out of the house, using language she would never use in front of her kids in any other sort of situation.

Daniel ran after you. “Y/N! Wait,” 

“What do you want?” you said, wiping tears that had escaped. 

“Look, I’m sorry for what Louie said. If it’s any consolation, Amanda is shouting at him, and kicking him out,” he stated.

“You can’t control what he said. It’s not your fault,” 

“I know, but I’m still sorry, and I’m also sorry for what Sam has been saying. I know you two have your rivalry...thing, but it shouldn’t have come up,”

“Yeah, thanks,” you nodded.

“You did well for handling it as well as you did, had that of been me, I would’ve thrown hands,” he said, impressed.

“Oh, trust me I wanted to. It just doesn’t give off a good impression if you beat the shit out of the people your boyfriend’s living with,” you chuckled.

“Yeah, well I guess not,” he smiled.

“Why are you being so nice to me?” you asked, genuinely confused.

“What do you mean?”

“Well like, I’m a part of Cobra Kai. I’ve been in fights with your daughter, I’m not what people call the best ‘influence’ on people. Need I say more?” you said

“I see your point, but Robby trusts you. I’ve seen him improve since you two have been together, he seems happier, and if he trusts you, then I do too,” he explained.

“Thank you Mr Larusso,” you said, smiling at him.

“No problem kid,” he smiled back, “Now, if you want to stay for dessert, we have ice cream,” he offered.

“I think I’d just rather go home, if that’s okay,” you said.

“That’s totally fine, alright? I’ll go get Robby to take you home?” 

“Yes please,” you said, “Thank you,”

“Your welcome. I’ll see you soon,”

“Bye”

Robby came out a minute after Daniel had left, and immediately hugged you, “Are you okay?” he mumbled.

“I will be. I just want to go home,” you replied. 

“Okay, lets go, yeah?” he asked. You replied by nodding your head, yes.

**********

You and Robby had arrived at your house, and he walked you up to the front door. “Can you stay with me?” you asked.

“Yeah of course,”

You both made your way up the stairs and into your room. You grabbed some comfy clothes, and changed in the bathroom, before coming back to Robby.

“Are you feeling any better?” he asked.

“A little. Can we cuddle?” 

He just laid down in your bed, and opened his arms for you to lay in. You positioned yourself in his arms so your head was on his chest, listening to the steady sound of his heart beating.

Robby kissed the top of your head. You shifted your head to look up at him. He kissed your lips.

You knew that this boy would be the death of you.

@blackoutgirx

[lysteriaposts]

COBRA KAI S4 FULL REVIEW (OMFG!!!)

where to freaking start... what an absolute INSANE season that upped the game and stakes for so many characters. i'm going to keep doing this in bullet list form since i find it easier to express my thoughts that way and is easier to read. SPOILERS BELOW!!!

first off: terry silver and kreese and their crazy dynamic was so unexpected. i thought they were going to get along splendidly have work great together, but there was so much scary tension between them!! at first i thought kreese was the 'bad' one, and then they switched it around to silver being the maniac. absolutely brilliant and one of my favourite parts of this season.

on that note... kreese being somewhat redeemed?? what!? did not see that coming and i'm still on the fence if i like it or not. but it does elevate silver's character not going to lie.

johnny/daniel storyline this season however was one of my pet peeves of the season tho... it was just underwhelming and felt like they dragged out the same old rivalry stuff from previous seasons. and i did not like how they regressed daniel so much, and johnny was more of a knobhead than normal.

conclusion: kreese/silver > johnny/daniel in terms of story

the larussos overall were done dirty this season *except* anthony and amanda...

i've seen people hate on anthony but i loved his arc (that is not yet finished) and it's something fresh for the show as well as his story with kenny. it brought out a new side to daniel too and amanda.

unlike anthony i did NOT understand the motivation for sam to be such a bully this season... i'd actually like to even call her a bitch because that's what she was. i would've been alright with it i guess if it lasted half of the season but she remained unlikable until the end so you didn't even want her to win the all valley. bad season for her.

oh kenny, kenny, kennny <3 my precious son. no, robby's precious son! so sad to see how he had to be corrupted for robby to have clarity in his relationship with his dad and who he wanted to be. i really do hope tory or robby save kenny from silver...

honestly all the new character additions were great and did not feel forced at all! i did think devon would play a bigger part but maybe next season, there were a lot of storylines to keep up with. but she seems like a really cool girl.

TANNER'S ACTING WHEN HE RECONCILED WITH JOHNNY. my heart burst at that scene and even though i wish johnny had fought for his real son much more before this happened, i realize it's just not in his character and i did sense that getting robby back was one of his greatest wants this season, just nothing he expressed outwardly... *cue another emotional scene with drunk johnny and sad miguel*

MIGUEL MY POOR BOY! honestly, i knew it would come to this. i said that what johnny was doing was kind of replacing his son partly, and that it would strike back on both robby and miguel, because it was self serving. i really hope miguel and robby can bury the hatchet and that johnny will bring those two together.

can i also just say the heart attack i had when miguel suddenly hurt himself in the middle of the tournament..? i was like omfg not again....

TORY!!! an absolute mvp of the season. wonderful acting by peyton list, you could feel her anguish the whole season and us seeing more of her soft side didn't feel forced at all! i love the way she realized she was in such a rough position she had to mature, let go of grudges and let people in (amanda... robby...). and the fact that kreese was looking out for her was a nice surprise.

also happy she is the first all valley girls champion <3 it felt very predictable to make sam win, and it didn't feel like she earned it the way she was gloating about being the best the whole season and just being immature as well. you definitely rooted for tory more. i'm sad to see they had to make it tainted through silver cheating for her, but this show will add drama when it can so... and it does make it interesting how tory will approach silver about it next season....

i honestly hate kyler but since i was oddly rooting for the cobras this season he didn't annoy me as much?? like he wasn't an ass to kenny either? they really felt like a little dysfunctional family. robby as the dad, tory as mom, kyler as a weird uncle and kenny as the son lol.

kenny being shawn's brother!!! did not see that coming but i like it, it was convenient but flowed well with the story.

robby losing the final yet again and hawk of all people winning.... i don't know man. on one hand i didn't mind that robby lost because it was deeper for his arc that he felt bad about kenny, but i don't think a win was earned for hawk. at least it was unpredictable but i would've rather demetri won.

hawk didn't go through that much this season, not enough for me to really care. don't get me wrong i definitely like hawk/eli more now than ever before but... i'm just kind of over him and his insecurities? i would much rather they give demetri his own storyline than be half of the binary bros and hawk's side kick. he deserved it more.

also the demetri + yasmine scenes were too many, i'm not into them or her lol.

i thought moon getting back together with hawk was meh, a new girl would've been better for him or just no girl. i also didn't like the cheap LGBT rep with piper/moon just being a plot device.

on piper... really weird character.

anthony and kenny > nate and bert. sorry but those two annoy tf out of me...

i can't believe i've gotten this far and not mentioned the elephant in the room... ROBBY AND TORY. omg. i was actually hoping for more scenes but there were SO many parallel storylines that i understand the limit... but what they did with them was amazing. well-written, so much chemistry and wholesomeness. in my books the best CK pairing on the show (pls become official next szn okay?).

the whole prom episode... parts were good (mostly robby and tory) but i'm not gonna lie the fight scene in tuxes and dresses was so embarrassing ahahaha.

i am very happy they chose the route to make tory/robby be completely over their exes but have sam/miguel (who people thought were gonna be solid) be hesitant and jealous. that is usually normal for cheaters. but it's also a cool contrast.

i don't think sam and miguel are good for each other, they also don't have the somewhat chemistry they had in s1. miguel should get someone new and i would like to see sam single. she needs to find herself.

THE ADDITION OF KATA DEMONSTRATION IN THE TOURNAMENT WAS SO COOL. however carrie underwood made me cringe. lol

i think more playing witht eh johnny/sam and demetri/johnny dynamic was missed. but johnny already has "two sons" so i get they don't have time to add more to the mix lmao.

when johnny was lubing up miguel in oil and tried recruiting girls for his dojo at the football field and this girl said "I'm asexual" - I've never related more lmaoooo.

omg... i actually think that's it! i'm gonna have to rewatch this szn many times over, it's gonna be a pain to wait a year for the next... plz share your favourite moments of the season and opinions <3 i'd be happy to hear them!

[m00n-baby]

Tory and Johnny are very similar. They have the same temper- and they do the same stuff. But I barely see anyone hold Johnny accountable, yet they call Tory crazy for the shit she does.

Johnny started a fight over Ali. After she said she didn’t wanna talk. Half the fandom doesn’t even like Ali or forgets she exists. Hardly anyone even acknowledges that what Johnny did was wrong.

Tory started a fight over Miguel. People blame her for the injury- and call her crazy for starting the fight. Now I agree she shouldn’t have started it. There’s a big difference between a fight between two people on the beach and a school brawl- but Tory didn’t expect it to go like that. Hawk was the one who started punching random people.

!! season four spoilers !!

Tory stormed into the dojo to confront Amanda about something- she never hurt anyone. Multiple people on youtube comment sections called her crazy and nuts. No one knows the context- for all we know Kreese found out she was talking to Amanda and threatened to stop paying her rent if she didn’t cut the tie with her.

Johnny on the other hand attacked someone cause he was looking for Robby, after the guy clearly had no idea where he was. I’ve never seen anyone say anything about this- you can’t just storm into a workplace and attack someone. Tory never hit anyone.

!! Spoilers over !!

So people don’t hold a grown man accountable for anything, yet they call a 17 year old girl crazy for doing the exact same stuff. Johnny is an adult. He knows better than to just attack people. Tory does too- but she’s a teenager and needs to learn. Johnny has had plenty of time to learn. Tory needs to learn from her mistakes- she isn’t crazy. Stop ignoring what Johnny does and then calling a teenage girl crazy for doing the exact same stuff.

[shrinkthisviolet]

☕️ + Daniel and Amanda’s parenting in CK? Good or bad?

Well, as usual, the answer is complicated.

See, I think they try to be good parents. And mostly, I think they succeed—Sam clearly has a strong moral compass, she’s kindhearted, she and Anthony are happy…once in a while, Anthony has his moments.

The problem comes in a few shades. For one, Sam and Anthony are classist (Anthony’s is more speculation, I’ll grant, but given his canon behavior, it tracks. Sam’s…is made clear a few times). Although I think Sam was looking out for Tory and Aisha at the country club by warning them about the vodka, and although I think Tory making a joke about the silverware was a little reckless given that she’s a guest at a club and doesn’t even know Sam…it’s clear that Sam does have a class bias.

That’s more clear in S4, when she goes to bother Tory when she’s working with children. Like…look, Sam, I will never begrudge you your S4 anger, but bothering someone at work, dragging kids into it…that’s too much. We can excuse it as Sam not knowing Tory’s situation, since she really doesn’t know anything, but she is unconsciously classist, whether or not she means to be. (Now, fandom, this doesn’t make her an awful character, so put away your pitchforks. It means she has a flaw. Characters can have flaws.)

Also, Daniel and Amanda’s reaction to Sam’s PTSD is…lackluster. Daniel takes forever to notice and goes on a retreat for Sam for one day. Amanda…presumably notices and helps, but then forgives Tory in S4 and presumably forces Sam to do the same (or tries. Or at least ignores her anger and continues to help Tory…completely contradicting that end-of-S2 anger that should’ve been magnified after S3). And, more importantly, none of them transfer her to a different school or make her go to therapy. Great job, guys. Glad your priorities are straight here 💀

Anthony…well, as much as I try to write him with the benefit of the doubt, canon gives me precious little to work with. He’s a brat nearly all the time, he plays his father to get more stuff in a deleted scene (which could be canon, it fits his character), he’s a bully, etc. More to the point, it’s made clear (in an S3 deleted scene, and especially in S4) that part of the reason for this behavior is that he’s jealous of the attention Sam gets. Which makes sense, because other than a kiss or a reprimand here and there, Anthony is repeatedly not prioritized emotionally compared to Sam. Which could explain why he falls in with bad kids—he doesn’t have emotional support at home, but his friend group validates his feelings in some way, which is why he sticks with them.

Don’t even get me started on That Scene, where Daniel breaks Anthony’s iPad and screams at him, without any sort of constructive explanation or whatever. Yes, he needed to be firm with Anthony, but…let me offer some experience: I’ve been yelled at and relatively-calmly scolded. Guess which one I learned more from? The second. I never learned anything from being yelled at. And my parents, being good parents, realized this and switched to scolding, because it was more effective and didn’t scare us kids as much.

(Granted, I never had my property broken. But something tells me I wouldn’t have learned anything from that either).

All in all, Daniel and Amanda aren’t as bad as Johnny or Sid, and they’re trying to be good parents, but…lately, their failures are becoming obvious.

send me ☕️ + a topic, and I’ll talk about how I feel about it!