irksomeartie

[irksomeartie]

Sam/Tory's resolution was a amazing. Robby/Miguel's resolution sucked. Here's why.

Cobra Kai did a fantastic job with Sam and Tory’s eventual resolution. It hit the right notes and brought genuine closure to their feud. Sadly, the same cannot be said for how the show handled Miguel and Robby’s storyline. Their resolution fell flat in comparison. 

In this analysis, I want to dig into what made Sam and Tory’s arc so rewarding, and also examine why I found Miguel and Robby’s resolution so unsatisfying. Of course, this is just my perspective, and I deeply welcome respectful disagreement and open conversation. 

Let’s start with what went wrong for Miguel and Robby. Their resolution doesn’t work for me because it singles out one character and assigns him nearly all the blame. Even though, clearly, both played a part in the conflict. 

The show’s so-called “resolution” glosses over much of the history between these two. It almost pretends that their rivalry began with Miguel’s fall, overlooking the drama that happened in the first two seasons. The narrative turns Miguel into the primary victim by focusing only on his pain and what Robby did to him, while virtually ignoring Robby’s pain and Miguel’s own actions. 

The resolution ignores several critical moments: Miguel kissing Robby’s girlfriend, Miguel attacking Robby first during the school brawl, Miguel drunkenly going after Robby in a fit of rage, and Miguel targeting Robby’s injured shoulder during their AVT match in a clear act of poor sportsmanship. None of these moments are given any weight or even mentioned in their resolution. The only incident the show seems to focus on is Robby accidentally kicking Miguel off the railing (a fight, might I add, that Miguel initially started.) 

The biggest mistake Robby is harshly judged for is something he did without malice or intent. It wasn’t planned, and it certainly wasn’t a conscious act of cruelty. Yet, all the actions Miguel took against Robby, many with clear intent and even bitterness, are simply ignored. Robby doesn’t get a real sense of resolution from this scene. 

Instead of closure, Robby is vilified for “not holding back,” as if Miguel himself was always the model of restraint during his time with Cobra Kai. Let’s be honest: Miguel had his own share of moments where holding back was the last thing on his mind. 

But it isn’t just Miguel’s wrongdoing that is brushed aside. Even events that truly should have counted against Robby, moments I think deserve honest critique, never get addressed. Robby’s decision to join Cobra Kai and teach them Miyagi-do’s techniques, despite knowing firsthand how much harm they caused, could easily have been mentioned. Robby forcibly shaving Hawk’s hair could have come up as well. 

There’s also the very foundation of their rivalry aka both boys’ jealousy over the other’s relationship with Johnny. This underlying motivation is never even brought up, even though it has shaped much of their actions. 

Instead, the entire focus lands on one event: Robby kicking Miguel off the ledge, an action that wasn’t calculated and for which Robby can’t truly be blamed. Robby didn’t start the fight. He didn’t force them upstairs. He didn’t design the conditions for that accident to happen. 

Why not focus on Robby’s real mistakes, the ones he made with intent? Why use an accident, and not Robby’s deliberate actions, as the basis for this resolution? It’s hard to take this resolution seriously when it’s built on an event that doesn’t reflect Robby’s true agency or responsibility. 

It’s even more frustrating that this “resolution” hinges on Miguel beating Robby into submission. What kind of lesson does that send, exactly? What are viewers supposed to take away from this? That if you manage to come out on top after someone wrongs you, you should expect harsh payback for finding a way to win? That true resolution comes from one person physically overpowering the other, rather than honest reflection and accountability? 

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Now let’s look at Sam and Tory’s resolution and why it stands out as near perfect. The timing of this resolution is absolutely essential. If you look closely, it actually begins back at the end of season 5, when Sam takes the initiative to visit Tory’s house. That single step leads to an important transformation in Sam’s character. 

Before this visit, Sam was not sympathetic toward Tory at all. In Sam’s eyes, Tory was nothing more than a bully and a lawbreaker who deserved every bit of trouble she got.  

Sam had every reason to stand her ground and never offer Tory an ounce of understanding. After all, Tory had been her main adversary, someone who hurt her and made her life difficult. So honestly, Sam is the last person on that show from whom Tory could expect any sort of sympathy (nor was Tory owed it from Sam). 

But what makes this resolution so compelling is that, regardless of the past, Sam chose empathy/sympathy anyway. Seeing Tory’s difficult home life opened Sam’s mind and heart, allowing her to see her rival in a new light. This moment (this honest shift in perspective) is the most powerful driver of resolution. It’s what turns enemies into people capable of understanding each other.  

And this is exactly what we never got from Miguel and Robby. Their arc jumped straight from aggression to forgiveness, with almost no sign of either one having a real epiphany about the other’s side of the story. You blink, they’re fighting; you blink again, and suddenly they’re friends. There’s no journey, no realization, nothing that actually explains the change. 

Sam’s change wasn’t something she owed Tory, or something she did out of obligation. It came from her own compassion and willingness to look beyond their rivalry. That’s what makes it so moving. 

For Tory, the resolution is just as meaningful. Sam showing up at her door stops Tory in her tracks. Tory had already tried to reach out once, and it didn’t work. So she retreated, not expecting another chance. In Tory’s eyes, Sam was stuck-up and unreachable, far too absorbed in her own moral high ground to listen. That’s why Sam walking through that door is a shock. It challenges everything Tory believed about her rival. For the first time, she realizes Sam is willing to put aside their history and genuinely help. That willingness sparks a shift in Tory, allowing her to see Sam as more than just an enemy. 

In that moment, both girls gain the chance to genuinely see each other as people. This is the real spark behind a true resolution: understanding, vulnerability, and mutual recognition of each other’s struggles.

Another thing that makes Sam and Tory’s resolution so strong is that it doesn’t happen all at once. Unlike Robby and Miguel’s reconciliation, which jumps straight from violence to sudden friendship right after Miguel beats Robby, Sam and Tory move much more realistically. Their progress is slow, hesitant, and a bit awkward. Right after the end of season 5, they aren’t suddenly close. There’s no immediate trust, and certainly no instant friendship between them. 

Their interactions at first are stiff and driven mostly by their boyfriends’ new friendship. It’s not about forgiveness or healing yet, it’s just about tolerating each other for the sake of those around them. Robby points this out directly: while Sam and Tory have stopped hating each other, that doesn’t mean they’ve become friends overnight. That’s how a genuine resolution should unfold. There should be space between acknowledging the other’s pain and truly building a new relationship. Especially considering just how fierce and personal their rivalry was. 

This in-between space (where neither is an enemy, but they’re far from friends) is important in a story like theirs. A shift like that should feel strange. It should take time for animosity to fade and trust to grow. This resolution in progress is messy and uncomfortable, but that’s what makes it work and feel real. In contrast, Miguel and Robby’s rushed move from conflict to camaraderie, without any period of discomfort or adjustment, undermines the believability of their story. That’s why I just can’t take their reconciliation seriously or feel moved by it. 

Next comes the key moment where Sam and Tory actually work together which is something that sets their resolution far above what happened between Robby and Miguel. When a fight breaks out with Kenny, Sam and Tory step in as a team. For the first time, they see each other not as opponents, but as partners with a shared goal. This marks a major turning point in their journey from rivals to allies. 

The significance here is huge. Working together, trusting each other in a tough situation, is much more real and satisfying than just having one person overpower the other. In contrast, Miguel and Robby’s so-called reconciliation comes out of nowhere. Robby is suddenly able to see Miguel as a friend in the middle of being beaten up? It���s not believable or earned. 

In Sam and Tory’s case, the presence of a common enemy is what finally breaks the old pattern. Sam genuinely trusts that Tory will have her back, and Tory does the same for Sam. This is a huge leap forward, and much more authentic than simply moving on because one person “won” or forced the other to submit. 

The writers could have ended Sam and Tory’s arc with that powerful team-up moment, and it still would have stood miles above the shallow resolution between Robby and Miguel. But instead, they took it a step further and delivered something we hardly get from them: true closure rooted in honesty. The final stage of Sam and Tory’s resolution shows exactly why putting both parties’ faults on the table is critical. If you skip addressing the root cause of hurt and conflict, nothing is truly resolved. 

Their final interaction of this resolution is beautiful for three big reasons. First, both girls openly lay out their grievances, and both have the chance to defend themselves. This isn’t a lopsided scene designed to blame just one side or gloss over one person’s actions. Every major event that contributed to their feud gets named and discussed. It’s not one-sided, and it never feels like only ONE of them is expected to change or apologize. 

Second, the scene doesn’t let anyone walk away painted as “more responsible.” It respects how messy rivalries, pain, and misunderstandings really are. You could spend all day debating whether Tory escalated things or whether Sam started the friction in the first place. The point is, both made mistakes, and both hurt each other in ways the other didn’t deserve. There’s no need to build some moral ranking of who did what. They both own their actions, and that recognition leads to genuine apologies on both sides. 

Third (and maybe most importantly) the apologies feel real because they’re mutual. Each girl gets to express how she was wronged, and each receives the apology she’s owed. It’s not about who suffered more. It isn’t about assigning a clear “winner” or “loser.” Instead, it reflects real growth and real healing. In the end, neither Sam nor Tory is let off the hook, but neither is unfairly burdened, either. 

Both girls apologized on their own, without any pressure or demands from the other. They recognized the pain in each other’s eyes and understood the importance of owning up to their actions. By choosing to admit their faults independently, they displayed genuine empathy. 

In contrast, Miguel and Robby’s resolution lacked this true sense of empathy. The focus was mainly on Miguel’s experiences, and even Robby’s brief empathetic gesture was tied back to Miguel’s struggles. Sam and Tory’s approach was the opposite—their empathy centered entirely on the challenges the other was facing. 

This final stage in their resolution process served as the perfect finishing touch on what I believe is the most satisfying resolution in the series. For all these reasons, the Sam and Tory storyline stands out as my favorite resolution in the entire series.

What do you guys think? Let’s talk!

(Crossposted on Tumblr ❤️)

[irksomeartie]

Has anyone figured out what’s so viscerally wrong with this woman yet

[irksomeartie]

As an aroace person I actually never had that feeling of being broken. I thought everyone was the same way and some people were just dramatic 😭

[irksomeartie]

I agree with the points you made about Tory and being a Tory fan but on the flipside, I confess that it also really annoys me that I see a lot of Sam stans act like Sam did nothing wrong and that Tory was mean/aggressive towards her right from the beginning or that because Tory went too far, what Sam did doesn’t need to be taken into consideration. It also rubs me the wrong way that a lot of Sam stans seem to write Tory off as a psychopath or dismiss her backstory as pure “sympathy baiting” instead of explaining her complexity and why she acts the way she does (e.g. research has shown that parentified kids have a greater tendency towards violence, we also see that fighting for her is about personal safety and survival so rules and the use of weapons don’t mean the same thing to her as someone who is used to fighting in the context of tournaments and as an art form).

I like Sam and Tory but I think it’s a pity that both fanbases have people that take things to the extreme and fail to see both characters as the complex individuals they are!

yeah i think this is all super fair and i definitely agree with you. honestly like, not gonna lie when i first watched the show i disliked sam’s actions towards tory a lot more, and then like i think in reaction to the way that the fandom treated her i kind of swung the pendulum in the other direction. but yeah, i fully agree that it’s a disservice to both of their characters to paint sam as wholly the victim and tory as wholly the aggressor—one of the things that makes them and their dynamic interesting is that they both are in the wrong at points and also that the specific ways they react to each other really showcase their flaws/complexities. sam “flipping the narrative” is a very important part of her character arc, so it definitely doesn’t make sense to ignore that aspect of their rivalry. also, yeah, sam was super shitty to tory at the beach club, and that was kind of ground zero (that being said i think people often take that too far as a justification).

i also am completely with you that tory’s backstory is about more than garnering sympathy; like i said i do think it’s way more interesting to talk about how her trauma affects/influences her actions than to use it as a way to dismiss them, because like the former affords her way more complexity as a character and also allows her to actually grow as she gets more stability and trust in her life. like you said it’s a very realistic depiction of how her particular situation breeds her reactions, and i think the way they handle her development from there is one of the higher points of the series. it’s part of why i love her! she is a very very nuanced character and there’s a lot to say about where her aggression comes from and how it’s rooted in her feeling like she constantly has to do whatever it takes to survive (i think it’s super telling that one of the earliest scenes we get of her is her talking to aisha about how she uses her bracelet to fend off an assaulter).

but yeah, overall i think one of the things ck does do really well is create these rivalries where both parties are extremely easy to sympathize with and understand. like a lot of the rivalries in the show sam and tory are interesting because there’s not like, an objective villain between them; tory is framed as the antagonist early in their arc but that dissolves around s4, and tory starts garnering a lot more understanding/sympathy. i totally agree that it kind of robs them of their nuance to say that like none of sam’s actions mattered, and it also robs sam of a lot of her agency in that narrative, so the complexity of their dynamic gets lost. at the end of the day i really love both of their characters and i think their relationship is incredible, and it doesn’t really make sense to me to say that liking either of them means you can’t criticize their actions, especially, again, in a show that is all about how violence begets violence/trauma influences mistakes.

[irksomeartie]

I’m gonna go ahead and rant real quick. I’m a fanfiction author, and I’m constantly looking for ideas I like. A lot of those ideas come from prompts, or tumblr posts, or other fandoms, or existing tropes.

Sometimes, fics already exist in those tropes.

So here’s my apparently “unpopular” opinion: I like reading fics of the same trope. If there’s a fic where they’re famous actors and they fall in love that I enjoy, I want four more slightly different ones. If I’m writing a fic where one is catfishing, I want to read the trope in at least four other fics like???

I like to see other authors’ take and style on common tropes. Just because one fic in a trope exists doesn’t mean the trope is off limits for the fandom. Far from it - take a chance with that trope. If you’re worried you’re too similar, mark it inspired by. You’re not going to copy someone exactly, and you could have an interesting spin on it. I want that spin to exist.

If two fics of the same trope can’t exist, I might as well delete over half my fics, including some of my most popular. It’s discouraging to hear people drop ideas because something like it exists - or even maybe exists.

tldr; more than one fic can exist within a trope or prompt in a fandom and be good fics. Please write whatever you want, even if something similar exists. Someone (like me) will read them all and enjoy them all.

[irksomeartie]

[irksomeartie]

i feel like tumblr doesnt know about the pain and suffering that is english tap water,,,, girl there are stalagmites inside me

[irksomeartie]

[irksomeartie]

taking them out of the cycle of violence and putting them in a punk band

[irksomeartie]

I have a lot of thoughts about how Cobra Kai ended, and honestly, the more I sit with it, the more it frustrates me.

Because this show started off with so much heart. Season 1 was a character-driven continuation that asked what happens when people refuse to grow? what does healing look like when it’s too late? And for a while, it answered those questions in messy, beautiful, grounded ways. We weren’t watching a “karate show.” We were watching a show about people broken people trying to unlearn everything they’d been taught, slowly stumbling toward redemption.

But somewhere along the way especially by Season 4 and 5 the writing shifted. They chose spectacle over substance. They chose karate gang wars, surprise alliances, cartoon villains, and giant tournament stakes instead of doing the deeper, harder work of letting these characters breathe.

The clearest example of this is Johnny, Miguel, and Robby.

There’s this narrative I keep seeing that Johnny’s bond with Miguel somehow took away from his relationship with Robby. That loving Miguel was a betrayal. That Miguel “got in the way.” And honestly? That interpretation is not only unfair it completely ignores what the show actually set up.

Miguel and Carmen didn’t take Johnny away from Robby. They gave him a reason to try again.

Johnny was at his absolute lowest when the show began. Angry. Directionless. Guilt-ridden. And then he met Miguel this earnest, kind kid who just needed someone to believe in him. Helping Miguel wasn’t about being a karate sensei. It was about finally seeing himself through someone else’s eyes and deciding to be better. Carmen held him accountable. Miguel gave him hope. They weren’t a replacement for Robby. They were the catalyst for Johnny to even start confronting how badly he’d failed as a father.

Johnny even says it. When he apologizes to Carmen in Season 2, he admits that Miguel never gave up on him and through that, he saw he had a second chance. A second chance not just to be a better man, but to be a better father. Miguel inspired him to try and make things right with Robby. That’s not a betrayal. That’s growth.

But here’s the problem the writing didn’t follow through.

The Johnny/Robby reconciliation arc could have been incredible. It should have been slow, emotional, layered. But instead, it was rushed. A sweet road trip, a short bonding scene, and then suddenly they’re back on track. No real unpacking of the years of resentment, abandonment, jealousy, pain. And it’s not that the actors didn’t sell it they did the best they could. The problem is that the writers didn’t give it space to land.

Same goes for the Miguel/Robby rivalry. These two had so much built-up tension. Complicated, mirrored lives. A shared sense of hurt. And how does their emotional resolution happen? after Johnny’s sudden baby announcement. That’s not emotional closure. That’s a shortcut. It wasn’t earned. It wasn’t believable. And it reduced something deep and painful to a footnote in a baby subplot.

And speaking of rushed arcs let’s talk about Miguel’s trip to Mexico.

That storyline had so much potential. For once, Miguel was on his own journey separate from Johnny, separate from Cobra Kai, separate from the fight. It was a moment for him to figure out who he was outside of being the peacekeeper, the “good kid,” or the person always caught in everyone else’s drama. And it was so refreshing. We saw his vulnerability, his curiosity, his strength all on his terms.

But what did the writers do? They gave him two episodes. They dropped the arc. He didn’t get any emotional closure with his father. No deeper cultural exploration. No personal fallout. They just threw him back into the dojo drama like it never happened. A massive opportunity for growth, completely wasted.

It’s honestly part of a larger pattern. The writers kept planting emotional landmines and then stepping right over them.

And the most frustrating thing is that they clearly know how to write good character arcs. Look at Hawk. Look at Tory. Even Kreese got a more consistent emotional throughline than some of the leads. But as the show went on, they stopped trusting their own character work and started chasing escalation instead.

And yeah it’s ironic. Because this show pulled so much from the Rocky movies, right? But the Rocky films were never just about the fight. They were about the fighter. They were about character. The struggle wasn’t just in the ring it was in the heart. The training montages were metaphors for internal change. The final fights weren’t about victory they were about identity.

Cobra Kai started that way. But by the end? It felt like they were just building up to a “karate infinity war” where plot armor and cool moves mattered more than the people throwing the punches.

So no, I don’t blame Johnny for loving Miguel. I don’t blame Miguel for needing love. I don’t blame Robby for feeling hurt and angry. They were all doing their best in an emotionally rushed, narratively overcrowded story that refused to give them the depth they deserved.

I blame the writers. For choosing spectacle over substance. For prioritizing karate gang wars over meaningful emotional resolution. For sidelining arcs that could have made this show unforgettable.

Because the truth is the fights were never what made this show special.

The characters were.

And the more the show forgot that the more it lost what made it matter in the first place.

[irksomeartie]

something to remember is that writing is hard. and I don't necessarily mean in terms of writers block or trying to solve plot holes etc (although that's part of it), but as in it's hard work. even when writing is going well, you're spending a lot of mental energy on it – on deciding which words to use and in what order, remembering how to spell those words, figuring out if character dialogue sounds good, remembering the things that happened around the bit you're currently writing + what you want to happen next, checking plot notes, remembering your established canon, holding different subplots in your head.... that's like having a whole bunch of programs running simultaneously on a computer, and even the best computer with high end specs can't run like that forever. so if you ever catch yourself thinking "man all I did was write/revise/edit. why am I so tired?" that is your answer. because your brain has been running multiple processes and it needs a break

[irksomeartie]

Shout out if you also include erotica or smut in your works to turn meaningful narrative into an indulgent detour designed only to stimulate arousal

[irksomeartie]

[irksomeartie]

sometimes…..fictional characters…….don’t need to name their children after dead people…….

[irksomeartie]

Is that your phone in your pocket or are yuo penis just square and flat and full of information

[irksomeartie]

ubi, universal basic income

[irksomeartie]