EVERY SAM AND TORY SCENE/MENTION (30/?) 

“Bicephaly” — Cobra Kai Season 4 Episode 4 

My thoughts on Cobra Kai season 5 because nobody asked for it

Ok so this is gonna be so messy because my brain is messy. Also these are just my opinions you can agree or disagree.

Let's begin!!

Fist off, IT TOOK TOO FUCKING LONG FOR DANIEL AND JOHNNY TO MEET! like these two were apart half the season! But because dear beloved chozen was beside Daniel i was not mad at this that much. Also their first scene together was worth the wait for real ( the "who did this to you" vibes)

Lawrusso crumbs were good i enjoyed them!! They have so much tension even when they just stand near eachother it's CRAZY!! ALSO DRUNK JOHNNY SLAPPING DANIEL'S ASS? AWESOME

Chozen and Daniel's scene were my absolute favorites this season. Like, they were really funny and because they were following the main storyline i was really interested in their scenes. I LOVE CHOZEN

But as for Johnny's storyline; im sorry to say this but I DID NOT LIKE IT AT ALL! i liked his whole part with trying to find Miguel and trying to fix Miguel and Robby's relationship and all that, but the whole baby part with Carmen was so fucking stupid . my man , you already have TWO KIDS to take care of, not to mention one of them you ignored and wasn't there for his entire childhood. Don't you think you need to focus on him now? Like, how about we spend one fucking season to actually build a better bond between Johnny and Robby? Also OMG THE WHOLE JOHNNY SEEING THE PICTURE OF THE BABY AND GETTING STRONG WAS SO FUCKING STUPID IM SO SORRY IT GAVE ME SECOND HAND EMBARRASSMENT.

On a side note; look, i like Carmen she is awesome, but Carmen and Johnny have no chemistry DEAR LORD i cannot watch their scenes together

Terry Silver is a very good villain OMG

not them making me think John Kreese fucking DIED wtf (ooh i liked the secen where he was talking to the therapist and saw every one from his past OMG SO GOOD! I was on the vergeof tears when i daw young johnny ,don't talk to me!!)

The miguel/robby and tori/sam bestisim is making me so happy!! Tori and Sam have a lot of work to do still ,but MIGUEL AND ROBBY WERE JUST ALWAYS NEAR EACH OTHER PUTTING HANDS ON EACH OTHERS SHOULDERS BRUH TOO CUTE.

Also miguel/robby/eli besties era hell yeah

I'm so happy i got a little sibling bonding between Sam and Anthony! It was important to me on a personal level OK?

The limousine part? AWESOME

The protect the egg part? TOO FUNNY I DIED

The finale WAS SO FUCKING GOOD!! it reminded me what i like about the show so much!! So SO GOOD. The chozen and silver fight? GOLD. But not the part where they made me think chozen died wtf fr.

OVERALL, i liked the season but not as much as the previous ones, the whole Johnny and baby storyline is pissing me off i hate it with a passion (sorry not sorry) .

There is also this problem that the show has had from season 1, which is, IT HAS ZERO , LITERALLY ZERO, LGBT REPRESENTATION (that one scene DOES NOT COUNT) ! My dudes this show has a LOT of characters and NONE of them are a part of lgbt? None of them are questioning themselves even? I understand that they're trying to keep the ~old vibes~ but that is literally no excuse for not having lgbt characters. It's so stupid. You can have the oldie vibes without using outdated storylines. Also lgbt people always existed.

I think I'm done! Let me know what you think! Or don't!

I know you’ve said you’re over cobra kai after this season so feel free to ignore this I won’t be offended! But I did want to get your thoughts on something:

Ignoring everything involving the Johnny aspect of Robby and Miguel this season, I did find the apology Robby gave to be a lot more fair to his character than I anticipated. To be honest, I still find the whole thing pretty unfair to both of them. Miguel almost died, and in my opinion he hasn’t been allowed to feel any real lasting trauma over it, but I digress. In season 5 he had Robby pinned against the railing, and chose not to kick him over, and they both stopped fighting at around the same time. I do think this is better than the alternative: Robby pinning Miguel and choosing not to kick him. That wouldn’t have been satisfying for me. Robby didn’t need to choose to “show mercy” because what he did was an accident in the first place. Miguel didn’t need Robby to almost kill him again (accidentally or not) and then be spared at the last second because that would only further victimize him. Not to mention, Robby might be Miguel’s primary source of anger and trauma, but Miguel is not Robby’s—it’s Johnny. And their ensuing conversation, where Robby apologizes and tells Miguel he had tunnel vision, that he barely even knew where he was, to me that was finally an explicit acknowledgement that Robby didn’t even realize Miguel had stopped fighting until it was too late. That it was an accident.

I do think their issues were resolved far too quickly. Miguel accepted this and moved on too fast, and the real problem between them, Johnny, went completely unresolved. More than unresolved, actually, it went wholly ignored in favor of giving him a brand new shiny do over with a baby. And I also wish that instead of fighting it out, Miguel and Robby had actually had a real prolonged conversation about everything that’s happened between them. But I guess I just wanted to know what your thoughts were on all that?

Thank you, thank you. You're too kind!

100% agree with everything you are saying.

To me, Miguel's accident always seemed to be Robby's albatross. Something used to actively pull Robby back than other characters. Miguel healed at a borderline miraculous pace. Tory got to complete her education. Sam was also fine. All of their lives came back to normal. But Robby? His whole life turned upside down.

He became a criminal, got imprisoned, is still on probation, slept on a dojo floor, lost his education, lost all meaningful relationships of his life. Not to mention he was on the run, homeless and starving with literally not a single soul to reach out to.

That's the thing, the game was always rigged against Robby after that moment. DESPITE HIM NOT DOING IT. It was purely an accident. I understand if he had meant to hurt Miguel, but he literally didn't. AND YET, he gets BRUTALLY PUNISHED by the narrative for something he didn't do. I just don't get it.

The show got that moment wrong when it happened and it continues to get it wrong 3 seasons later. That fight in S5 between Robby and Miguel was never about them resolving their issues, it was about Miguel finding closure on his accident. Just like every f-g scene in this pathetic season, Robby was once again a means to an end in that scene and not the focus of it. (Robby wasn't the focus of ANY scene in this season. I'm shocked at this.)

But it fills me with so much rage that show chose to yet again have Robby and Miguel fight and yet again have Mary Sue Miguel win over him. Didn't this kid learn to walk a few months ago? And Robby was able to obliterate the entire Cobra Kai without them landing a single hit on him. But okay.

Robby is the best fighter of the next gen and this is the hill I will die on.

Other people have mentioned how the show goes against its own prior beliefs that fighting doesn't solve anything by having Johnny make Robby and Miguel fight and it freakin working. As bad as this season was, it had a great scene where Kresse opens up to his therapist and we see all the important people from his life appear.

Something like that between Robby and Johnny or Miguel and Robby was needed where they actually meditate on their issues and give them the weight they deserve. Instead of insincere, brushed resolutions that we got.

The baby do-over Johnny got is a whole different can of worms. All I will say on it is that I was noting my thoughts while watching the season because I thought I'd make gifs and meta posts about it. When the baby reveal happened, I wrote in my notes:

Ooooooo what? Johnny's having a child? Robby, just step into the sun.

Cobra Kai Ships and My Opinion in Them

This might be controversial?

-Daniel and Amanda.

They’re cute. Daniel was on my list a few seasons ago because he was getting too close for comfort with Kumiko. My guy, you have an amazing wife at home, what are you doing???? He also failed to mention Amanda when talking to Sam about first love vs true love. Luckily, he has redeemed himself and I do feel that he and Amanda do love each other and are a good couple. I also adore Amanda, so the more screentime she has, the better.

-Daniel and Johnny.

Let me just say, I wasn’t a believer before but I am a believer now. The whole show is literally about them and their relationship and everything goes to shit when they are separated/fighting. The literal message of the show is that they need to work together and that they complete each other. You may ask, how can I choose between Daniel and Amanda and Johnny and Daniel? The answer is you don’t have to, polyamory exists.

-Carmen and Johnny.

This is a no from me. I never liked them together, I never thought they should be together. They have no reason to be together. They are polar opposites. Carmen is very mature and wise beyond her years and Johnny is not (I love Johnny but it’s the truth). They are just so incompatible. I feel like the only reason Carmen and Johnny are together is so that Johnny can officially be Miguel’s father, when I feel like it would be so much more powerful to have Johnny be a father figure to Miguel despite there being no legal or blood link between them. I also disliked the baby storyline because 1) I don’t feel like Johnny is ready to raise a newborn and 2) I still feel like he has a long way to go in repairing his relationship with Robby.

-Carmen and Amanda.

Yes, they are cute together, they have chemistry and they are way more compatible than Johnny and Carmen. They should totally be included in the polycule.

-Daniel and Chozen.

They are cute together. They should be included in the polycule.

-Johnny and Chozen.

Same as above, though I like Daniel and Chozen a bit more than Johnny and Chozen.

-Sam and Miguel.

I found them cute in the earlier seasons but I always thought if their relationship as a first semi-serious, high-school gf/bf kind of thing. They had chemistry before but it sizzled out in season 5. I have to say it, they should have stayed broken-up permanently in season 5. There was no reason for them to get back together. I get why the octopus reminder worked the first time but at this point, it showed that their relationship really wasn’t that deep if the thing that reminded Sam of the reason she liked Miguel was a stuffed octopus toy from their first date. It was also kind of a moot reminder because both of them have changed a lot since then. I think they have both outgrown each other romantically but would have been such cute friends.

-Sam and Robby.

I always felt kind of neutral about them but I have to admit, they had chemistry in season 5. In the scene where they talked in the dojo, I almost wished that they would get together. I don’t really mind if they don’t get together, though I do think the show dropped hints that there are unresolved feelings there.

-Sam and Tory.

The scene where Sam is in the self-actualization tank and Tory’s voice is the last thing she hears, Tory calls her a princess (in other media, that’s what the rebel love interest would call the good boy/girl/person main character) and the fact that Tory’s voice belonged to a part of Sam that she tried to repress, ummm that is fruity as hell. Every other time they interacted, they had tons of chemistry. I am all for it.

-Tory and Miguel.

I’ve always liked them together. I felt like they were different enough where they could bring out different sides of each other but not different enough where they couldn’t connect.

-Tory and Robby.

I think out of all the canon teen ships, they have the deepest connection. I felt like there was some sort of magnetism that drew them to each other and I feel like they understand each other.

-Demetri and Yasmine.

A dumpster fire of a relationship. The only reason Demetri likes Yasmine is because she is popular and he thinks that she is hot and I have no idea why Yasmine likes Demetri. In fact, I don’t think she even likes Demetri, judging by that comment he made about having to buy her a lot of charms for her bracelet because he made her mad. They are both from different universes and I honestly have no idea what they could possibly bond over.

-Eli and Moon.

I think they vibe well together and were cute together the first time round but like with Miguel and Sam, I don’t see why they got back together, they should have stayed friends.

-Yasmine and Moon.

They had more chemistry in the scene where they sat in the booth together than either of them had with their boyfriends in the last 5 seasons. They also have a long-lasting friendship, so the foundation is there.

—Eli and Demetri.

This is a ship that has a deep connection and a deep history. I am also a sucker for the childhood friends to lovers trope.I think that they inherently know and understand each other well and there is a lot of unconditional love there (yes, even from Eli’s side). I do feel like the way Eli treated Demetri when he was Hawk was largely due to self-hated and fear (I might expand more on that in another post) and I feel like Hawk is a queercoded character (probably unintentionally). This is my favourite ship from Cobra Kai.

season finale cliffhanger is absolutely gonna be kreese getting out of prison and joining the 'good' side. the writers are very predictable when it comes to this. the one thing i cant place is where the teens are gonna end up, because the trailer had no samtory scenes and every kiaz scene had them on different terms.only thing left is sam and tory switching since theyre the only mains who havent been in both dojos.

You’re right they are predictable and I do unfortunately expect kreesedemption 😔 whether that will be the big season finale reveal or if it’ll happen earlier I don’t know, but it’s what I’m dreading most. Like within the timespan of the show alone he’s attempted murder twice. Thats not to mention the attempted murder in the 80s, or the actual murder in the army lol. But I’ve already mentally braced myself for it so 🤷 As for the teens, I really don’t see sam ever going to cobra kai. I know so many people expect that and while yeah it could happen just bc the writers want to drag out the plot, but other than that I don’t see it making sense at all. I’m sure tory will leave cobra kai eventually though, whether thats this season or the next, or the next or the next…..but i do agree that it’s interesting that we’ve actually gotten very little promo material on any of the teens arcs this season, except for the tension between robby and miguel. And even then I’m like 90% sure the trailer is trying to make them look like they’re at each others throats a lot more then they’ll really be.

ALRIGHT. So, I have some thoughts about season 5 of Cobra Kai. This will be under a cut because I am not a heathen.

So, I have watched season 5 twice: once all of the way through and then a second time just for Daniel’s arc. And not because I am only a fan of Daniel. I do love a lot of these guys. Daniel’s arc, though, man...

Anyway, I guess I’ll start with some of my favorite bits/characters:

LOVED Tory this season. Her scenes with Devon really were nice. Frankly, her whole arc and such was fantastic. I HATED that she was forced to break her damned hand, holy shit! I actually had to look away because it was so horrific. I do like how she caught onto Kreese’s bullshit and straight-up went, “Fuck this.” I also like how she mentioned Daniel getting hurt because of their antics and her genuine shock when Kreese was like, “That bitch got what he deserved.”

Sam’s sequence in the nightmarish pod. I like how well it showed her internal struggles and all of the labels she’s been forced to live with. I liked Sam a lot this season.

I actually liked Mike. I totally love that he turned his life around and we got to hear his story. Also, him apologizing to Daniel? Gold. I loved that. I also loved how he interacted with Chozen and Johnny. Him stealing the party limo was just...yeah, that was definitely great.

Daniel’s former rivals (the core three, at least) coming together to help him? Hell yes!!!!!

Chozen was KILLING it this season and I love him so much. I was so, so worried he had died and was gonna legit cry if he had. Also, I adored how he trained the kids and just…man, he was amazing! And his SHIRTS! Once more, I find myself wanting to steal his wardrobe.

Amanda being Jessica’s cousin? LOVED it more than anything. I saw somebody mention on a post that it makes so much sense that Daniel met Amanda through someone else and it really does. As kind as Daniel is, he very clearly doesn’t have a whole lot of friends.

Jessica telling Amanda more about Terry? That was fantastic. I saw someone else say that it was good for Amanda to hear that from someone that wasn’t Daniel and I agree 1000%. It would’ve been hard for Daniel to explain since it would’ve basically just been him heaping blame on himself for things that weren’t really his fault and it wouldn’t have helped matters at all. Whereas hearing it from Jessica, from the outside perspective of someone who was around while it was going on and who was actively involved at several points, yeah. That was better for Amanda. Really love how they handled Daniel and Amanda this season.

There were more things, I’m sure. XD

And now for what I didn’t like:

The teen drama. It is sooooo old to me. Maybe it’s because I’m 30 now and I’ve reached my limit with this stuff. But for real? At this point, it feels like the teens are dating for no reason other than they have to because the writers are holding them at gunpoint. Don’t get me wrong, SOME of them are cute but others are just…yeah.

I wish Sam hadn’t befriended Moon and Yasmine again. I miss Aisha. I honestly wish that those two had been written-off and Aisha’s potential as a character had been realized in full. (I know she left forever ago but listen...I will miss her every season.)

I wasn’t a fan of how Kenny continued to assault and bully Anthony. Yes, I understand why he hates Anthony. However, during that water park scene, they could’ve made Anthony crack his skull open on the edge of the pool and/or drown! THAT is when THEY should have been kicked-out! That shit is dangerous!

I don’t feel like getting into the Mexico plot line or Johnny only getting Miguel and Robby to make-up for the Redacted (not going into that one either) because I feel like enough people have already talked about all of that. Just know that I too am disappointed in some of the things that happened with Johnny this season.

I’m gonna talk about Terry and Daniel probably in a separate post because, honestly, my most favorite parts of the season were the ones involving them. I apologize in advance for when I find time in my life to go feral over that.

17/18/51 for the ask game. Bonus for 51 if it’s about chapter 24 of part 3 in virgin-verse 👀

Hi, Anon! 17. what is your favorite line you’ve ever written? This is a tough one. I think that maybe it's actually rather simple line of dialogue that nonetheless lands as a gut punch, but context is important. It's in Part 4 (AKA Sam & Cat's Super Rockin' Funtime Love Story (featuring Carly Shay)) of the Virgin Verse series (AKA touch me and gimme that rush), when Cat is explaining to her therapist that her parents live in Idaho with her brother, because he needs them. The reply is: “Do you need them?” Dr. Penny asked. I think about the impact of this moment for Cat a lot. 18. what is your most and least favorite part of writing?

I enjoy most of the writing process, honestly. I especially love collaborative writing, and the joy of talking through plot points and story beats and figuring out the timeline. As for the act of writing itself, I really enjoy finding the flow and getting deep into a group scene, like a party, and juggling the participants, the physical space, and the dialogue, and just having multiple characters to play with in a situation. Even if I know how the scene is going to play out, with that many characters, something extra and fun almost always develops organically. My least favorite part is maybe working within large and complex universes and having to keep details straight. Especially with life stuff getting in the way of being able to basically live in a project every day (though we have not stopped working on the Kinky Virgin Verse), it means we have to put in the time and the work to refresh ourselves on specific details, which puts us more behind. On the other hand, working within the complex story we've created has also allowed us to tell some really fun, unique and rewarding stories, so there are benefits even to this added layer of complexity. 51. share the synopsis of a story you work on that you haven’t published yet As requested, I will let you know what's next for Chapter 24 of Part 3 (AKA Tori Vega is a Kinky Top Who Drives a Subaru). -- Tori and Jade put in the work to talk intimately about difficult things, and Jade gains some new insight about herself -- Tori needs some stress relief -- Tori sees a ghost -- Jade receives an email from a mysterious stranger that could change everything -- Jade has to make an important choice I also want to mention that I've been working on the (two) sequel(s) to You Be The Moon, I'll Be The Earth, which involve: -- Sam and Cat finding a new understanding of one another -- Sam's struggle to leave her past behind -- Conflict between Tori and Sam -- Building found family -- What happens when Sam's past comes back to haunt her -- What are the limits of love?

"Robby's redemption arc was rushed" I don't know what show you watched, but Robby's redemption arc JUST got started when Robby realized he fucked up with Kenny and broke down to Johnny about everything.

We haven't seen Miguel or Hawk forgive Robby for anything; he's not getting a free pass. We won't know what Robby's interactions with these two characters are going to look like until season 5 comes out.

And I find it super interesting that people can watch this show and somehow think that Robby "doesn't deserve" a second chance, or that he's "too far gone" now and can't reform. Yeah, he accidentally kicked Miguel and hasn’t apologized yet, and he also cut off Hawk’s mohawk. Both things are awful, but like I said, we won’t know how Robby will handle things with Miguel and Hawk until next season. I don’t understand why some people want to rule him out as the worst person in the show. I mean, let's not forget he's not the only character who has done terrible things.

Johnny is a deadbeat dad who left his son with a murderous abuser and didn't do anything about it. Not to mention he's a former high school bully who hasn't even acknowledged what he did to Daniel. Will he ever? Time will tell.

Chozen tried to kill Daniel and Kumiko in cold blood with a knife.

Hawk broke his best friend's arm while he was on the floor crying and begging to be left alone. Not to mention he spent seasons harassing and attacking several people. We still don't have a scene of Hawk apologizing to Sam for slut-shaming her, destroying her dojo, traumatizing her at the arcade, and trashing her house. Sam seems to be chill with him now... for some reason. And all Hawk had to do to get back into Demetri's good graces was say sorry once.

Tory cut Sam's arm and left her with PTSD, and later on broke into her house, where she tried to hurt her again. And she also stood there while Robby cut off Hawk's mohawk.

So we could always argue that these characters don't deserve redemption either. I mean, look at the things they've done, right? And yet the show wants us to sympathize and root for every single one of them, just like with Robby.

You don’t have to like Robby, but acting like he’s less deserving of forgiveness and understanding than other people on the show is just fucked up. Just say you’re okay with second chances only if the characters that you like get them, and go already.

My thoughts about this trailer/teaser/whatever:

-SAM LOOKED PRETTY AS FUCK (I couldn’t keep my eyes off of her, she just looked awesome and so confident 😭)

-Tory seems like she wants blood in her hands this season and now I’m 100% her only chance to see the truth is Robby.

-Miguel looks so healthy and so good😭 I hope he remains strong the whole season, I can’t wait to see him fight with Mijagi Do and Eagle Fang methods.

-I don’t really care about Hawk lol, but he looks really angry.

-Demitri is still a cinnamon roll, but now this sweetheart can kick ass.

-Robby looks AMAZING with the black gi, but he is just so….angry😭 You can see the anger in his posture itself and it just breaks my heart because he is dealing with a lot of crap and now he is surrounded by so many bad people.

-This Tournament is going to destroy me.

-Im surprised there were not scenes between Johnny and Miguel.

-I riot for a scene between Sam and Johnny.

-Did I mention that I want Robby and Tory to be happy and have friends and go to therapy? Cause I do.

-Miguel and Daniel training just makes me think about a scene where Robby sees them and just loses all his hope in Daniel.

-Sam is going to play a really important role this season AND I DONT KNOW WHAT IT COULD BE. They focused A LOT on her, more than with the other kids. I really can’t imagine her winning the tournament, I don’t think the “good guys” will win this, but I haven’t found another answer.

-Why is Johnny breaking that thing.

-That scene where Tory is in top of Robby: I bet my soul she will stop before throwing the last blow and that’s the moment she will realize she likes him. Why? Because the writers are cheesy as fuck with this things.

-OKAY BUT THIS TWO MORONS TOOK THEIR FUCKING TIME TO BECAME FRIENDS AND NOW THEY ARE BUMPING HANDS OMG

-I hate Terry already 😭

-My bet is Robby or Sam will win.

-I NEED A SCENE OF DANIEL AND JOHNNY JUST.TALKING.LIKE.THE.OLD.DUDES.THEY.ARE.

-WHY IS SAM JUMPING FROM A ROOF? OR IS THAT DEVON? TORY?

-We need a fight between Robby and Sam. They loved each other a lot once, as friends and partners. They deserve a moment to reflect that in a fight (it would be really beatiful) and we should add the fact because their relationship wasn’t like Tory’s and Miguel’s, it was much more deeper.

-I want a scene were Sam tries this fight method she did with Robby (the one in the water that was like a circle between them) and her failing to do it with another person. Robby and her shared a friendship and balance together, the writers should stop dismissing that.

-I NEED AMANDA TO APPEAR AT LEAST EVERY TWO SCENES.

-Daniel sweety you have another child did u know that?

I try to stay out of shipping discussions since I don't have a ship anyway but I just wanna get this off my chest. I don't care what people ship. If people want to shit Keenry that's fine by me. If people want to ship SamRobby, that's fine by me too. What does strike me as weird tho is how people who really and truly are very defensive of Robby in every other way don't see that Sam has hurt Robby too. Even if you exclude the kiss at the party since Sam was drunk and not fully in control of her actions, she wasn't honest with him about her feelings for Miguel and Robby felt that. He even says that he felt insecure when he told her about the medal of honor. I get that she wrote to him while he was in juvie but Robby did try to write back, he just literally couldn't. Sam then proceeded to move on with Miguel. I get that the scene at the dojo was intense and there really wasn't a situation for her to actually explain things properly but then she chose to go to the skatepark to see him. Sam may have been right about Robby joining CK being bad but anybody could've said that. Johnny and Daniel said that and they were both right too. That doesn't change the role they played though. If you've watched the scene then you can't deny that Sam spent the whole time talking about what she wanted and how she felt. You can see how Robby shuts down as she keeps talking. I don't see how saying that Sam not acknowledging other people's feelings is just a flaw that she has anyway makes her doing that to Robby any less wrong. When you care about someone, acknowledging their feelings is something that you should always do. Although I will say that Daniel and Johnny are guilty of this as well. As far as the cafeteria fight goes, I definitely hold Tory accountable for starting that fight and I stand by my previous statements that Sam did not deserve what Tory did to her at all but Tory wasn't involved in the altercation with Miguel. Miguel was the one that attacked Robby. And Robby did call out Tory for starting the fight the next time he saw her. I also don't understand how people can just shrug off the cupcake comment bc it is bad regardless of the context. I'm not saying Sam is bad but the comment was. If a guy had made a comment like that I doubt people would've just shrugged it off. Sam may not have been the person that hurt Robby the worst but she did hurt him. We see as much on the show. Of course I'm not denying that Sam had helped Robby. She was the one who told Daniel about Robby's situation at home. Robby was really grateful to her for that. Also, it's one thing for Sam to feel hurt about everything that happened. But she didn't say during that prom fight "I'm hurt too", she said "you think I broke your heart". We cant just blame everything we don't like on the writers. I see people going back and forth saying that it was a fault on part of the writers and then saying that the line made sense bc Sam is allowed to feel hurt too. Well it can't be both. If we are going to take that line into account and say that Sam's allowed to feel hurt, it still doesn't change the fact that she invalidated Robby's hurt while talking about her own. Saying "you think" like that makes it seem as if she believes Robby's hurt is just in his head. There is a reason why Robby is upset with her. He wasn't upset with her about the cafeteria fight, he was looking forward to seeing her after he got out of juvie. He got upset with her after catching her with Miguel. I can see how the scene at the dojo wouldn't have been the best time for a conversation but then Sam chose to approach Robby at the skatepark. Just as a side note, I do think it's worth mentioning that she went there looking for him. But Daniel went looking for Robby too. That doesn't change that he let him down really badly. Throughout that whole conversation, Sam kept talking about her feelings and what she wanted. When Robby did bring up an argument he had, like Johnny, she shrugged it off by saying he was trying to change. Personally, I've always tried to validate Sam's trauma and her feelings. I just can't justify everything she says and does. I do think Sam gets a lot of unfair hate but I don't think I'd put it on par with the hate Robby gets as with Robby it's literally always things that are either 100% defensible and justifiable, not even true or just plain sick jokes like the ones made about him in prison. I do feel Sam gets hate for things out of her control but I don't think it's unreasonable to criticise her for her behavior towards Robby or to point out that she does have trouble considering other people's feelings and she does struggle with holding herself accountable. I'm not saying that I'm opposed to SamRobby being endgame, I just feel that if that were to happen Sam should first show Robby that she truly cares about him bc right now Robby truly believes she doesn't. And it isn't even a matter of whether it's true or not. Johnny and Daniel care about Robby too but Robby has every reason to believe they don't. I really don't see how it's any different with Sam beyond the fact that with Sam it's romantic. Again, as I said these are just my thoughts that I needed to get off my chest. Everybody is entitled to their opinion. I have absolutely nothing against people shipping SamRobby and even agree with vast majority of stuff that some of them say regarding Robby and the others. I am just stating my opinion bc I just needed to get it off my chest

NEW SAM FENDER INTERVIEW FOR NME

THE BIG READ

Sam Fender: “This album is probably the best thing I’ve done in my life”

The hometown hero has distanced himself from the ‘Geordie Springsteen’ tag, but there’s no shortage of rites-of-passage yarns and colossal tunes on the upcoming ‘Seventeen Going Under’

“You can see the ghost of Thatcherism over there…” says Sam Fender, pointing across the water to a vacant shipyard, where once the shipbuilding industry was so healthy that vessels towered higher than the rows of houses on the shore. We’re on the waterfront in North Shields, just outside Newcastle, and our photographer is snapping away for Sam’s first NME cover shoot.

The singer-songwriter stares stonily into the lens as wafts of seaweed and fishing trawlers are carried by the northern coastal breeze. He’s already been stopped for a few pictures with fans, but remains eager to point out the impact that Tory leadership has had on his working-class town over the last few decades. “It’s been closed since the ’80s, from the ghost wasteland of the shipyards. You’ve got all the scars of Thatcherism from The Tyne all over to the pit villages in Durham.”

It’s as good an introduction as any to the outspoken musician, whose 2019 debut album ‘Hypersonic Missiles’ was a record for his sleepy hometown to be proud of – tackling themes that range from male suicide (the heartbreaking ‘Dead Boys’) to world tensions (and the “kids in Gaza” he eulogised on its soaring title track). He set weighty topics against blisteringly well-executed Americana with the fist-in-the-air euphoria of Bruce Springsteen’s colossal choruses and sax solos. Much like his hero, Sam smartly weaves his own political standpoint and personal circumstance into gripping anthems of a generation, which earned him the ‘Geordie Springsteen’ tag.

“I can’t exactly bat off those comparisons, can I?” he says back in his cosy recording studio nearby. “At the same time, I don’t feel worthy of that tag. The first time I heard it, I was like, ‘That’s fucking sick’, but you don’t want to be riding off the coattails of The Boss for the rest of your life. I can write my own songs, they’re different and my voice doesn’t sound anything like Springsteen’s. I don’t have his growl; I’m a little fairy when I sing.”

He may have toned down the Springsteen vibes slightly on his highly anticipated second album ‘Seventeen Going Under’, due later this year, but there are still plenty of chest-pounding anthems capable of making your hairs stand on end: “I much prefer Americana to the music we have in our country at the moment. I love the leftfield indie stuff like Fontaines D.C, Squid and Black Midi, but I love a chorus and melodic songs. I think the American alternative scene has that down with Pinegrove, Big Thief, The War On Drugs.”

‘Hypersonic Missiles’ thrummed with a small town frustration almost that every suburban teenager could surely relate to. This was most notable on ‘Leave Fast’, where he sang about the “boarded up windows on the promenade / The shells of old nightclubs” and “intoxicated people battling on the regular in a lazy Low Lights bar”, a reference to his beloved local. But album two sees him fully embrace North Shields, an ever-present backdrop to cherished memories and harrowing life events of his youth and surroundings.

It’s no coincidence that the 27-year-old has turned inwards and penned a record about his hometown while being stuck at home like the rest of the country: “I didn’t have anything to point at and I didn’t want to talk about the pandemic because nobody wants that – I never want to hear about it again. It was such a stagnant time that I had to go inwards and find something, because I was so uninspired by the lifetime we we’re living in.

“I’ve made my coming-of-age record and that was important for me – as I get older, these stories keep appearing; I’ve got so much to talk about. I wrote about growing up here. It’s about mental health and how things that happen as a child impact your self-esteem in later life. On the first record, I was pointing at stuff angrily, but the further I’ve gotten into my 20s, the more I’ve realised how little I know about anything. When you hit 25, you’re like: ‘I’m fucking clueless! I know nothing about the world.’ It was a humbling experience, growing up.”

Early last year, before the pandemic hit, Sam was set to jet off to New York pre-pandemic to record in the city’s infamous Electric Lady studios founded by Jimi Hendrix. “Looking back, I’m thankful that it happened,” he says. “If I went off to New York and did my second album there… it wouldn’t have been the same record. I will go and do the third one in NYC, come hell or high water – I’m fucking out of here!

“The forced return home really informed the direction [of the record]. I was on the crest of this insane wave; we’d sold out 84,000 tickets for the [‘Hypersonic Missiles] arena tour that we still haven’t played yet. I’m still waiting to hear when it’s going to be rescheduled. It’s incredibly frustrating; I’ve got loads of frustrated fans. That was all cancelled on the day of the lockdown. I thought it was only going to be a couple of months and that it would be another swine flu thing, but fool me – I was stuck in the house like everybody else.”

It’s not the first setback that Sam has dealt with in his career. In the summer of 2019, he was ready to make his Glastonbury Festival debut with a Friday afternoon set on the legendary John Peel Stage, a rite of passage for any emerging artist, but had to pull out due to a serious health issue with his vocal chords. The mood in the room shifts dramatically at the mention of this devastating period: “I don’t want to focus on that, to be honest, because it’s just negative news and it’s in the past.”

“The further I’ve gotten into my 20s, the more I’ve realised how little I know”

Looking back now, he says, it was a tough decision, but ultimately the right thing to do: “We were doing so much at the time and I just burnt out. If you damage your vocal cords, you can’t take it lightly. If something happens like that and you keep going, you’ll fucking lose your career forever. I never want to end up behind the knife; I just refuse to put myself in that situation.”

The fact that his 2019 breakthrough ground to a halt again in COVID-decimated 2020 “was frustrating as fuck”, he says, “but I took solace in the fact that everyone was stopped in their tracks that time; it wasn’t just me.” This was in stark contrast to the singer’s experience of pulling the biggest moment of his music career in order to rest his vocal cords: “I didn’t talk for three weeks; I had to be silent and just watch Glastonbury on the TV, going, ‘This is completely dogshit’. But you can’t even say that out loud – you’re just saying it over in your head like a psycho. I’d take a pandemic over that any day.”

There was a brief flash of light when he headlined the opening night at the world’s first socially distanced arena, Newcastle’s Virgin Money Unity venue, to an audience of 2,500. Yet Sam’s not in the mood to wax lyrical about that, either. “It was amazing,” he says, “but it didn’t happen again.” A local lockdown in the North East brought the following shows – which would have featured Kaiser Chiefs and Declan McKenna – to a premature end in September: “It was another false start. We thought everything was going to get moving again but then we were just sat around [again].”

As for this reaction to the Government’s handling of the pandemic? It perhaps says it all that he’s selling face masks emblazoned with the words ‘2020 Shit Show’ and ‘Dystopian Nightmare Festival’ on his website. “I think everyone has said enough haven’t they?” Sam suggests. “I never want to see Boris Johnson’s or Matt Hancock’s face ever again. As soon as they come on the TV, I just turn it off.”

Political tension bubbles through ‘Seventeen Going Under’. Its second half boasts tracks such as ‘Long Way Off’, a brooding but colossal festival anthem brimming with angst and unease. “Standing on the side I never was the silent type,” Fender roars, “I heard a hundred million voices / sound the same both left and right / we’re still alone we are.” It’s gripping stuff; a Gallagher-level anthem ripe for pyro and pints held aloft.

Sam says the song is about feeling stranded amid political divisiveness here and in the US, epitomised when Donald Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington back in January: “You’ve either got right-wing, racist idiots or you’ve got this elitist, upper-middle-class section of the left-wing, which completely alienates people like myself and people from my hometown.”

“The polarity between the left and the right has me feeling like I have no identity”

Closer to home, the last UK election, in 2019, saw the so-called ‘Red Wall’ crumble as working-class voters in the north defected from Labour to Tory. “The polarity between the left and the right has me feeling like I have no identity,” Sam says. “I’m obviously left-wing, but you lose hope don’t you? Left-wing politics has lost its main votership; it doesn’t look after working-class people the way that it used to. Blyth Valley voted Tory just north of here. Now, that is saying something! We’re in dire straits when a fucking shipbuilding town is voting for the Tories – it’s like foxes voting for the hunter.”

He’s even seen his own working-class friends peel to the blue side: “I’m like, ‘What the fuck is going on?’ I understand it, though. I’d never vote for the bastards because I fucking hate them and I know what they’re up to, but I get why people don’t feel any alliegiance to left-wing politics when they’re working-class.”

As ever though, Sam isn’t masquerading as an expert: “I’m not fucking Noam Chomsky, you know what I mean? I’m not going to dissect the whole political agenda of the Tories and figure it all out because I can’t. All I see is a big fucking shit sandwich – every day through my news feed – and it’s just, ‘Well: that’s what your dealing with.”

The singer is fond of describing North Shields as “a drinking town with a fishing problem”. Today he adds: “That’s been the backdrop of my life: all of these displaced working-class people. It’s a town that’s resilient that still has a strong sense of community. In a lot of big cities that’s dead. In London everything changes from postcode to postcode, but everything is quite uniform up here.”

When NME was awaiting Sam’s arrival outside the studio before the interview, a passerby clocked our photographer’s gear and asked, “Oh aye – are you waiting for Sam? We all know Sam – a good lad; very accommodating with nae airs or graces about him.” Another pointed to The Low Lights Tavern down the road, where Fender used to pull pints on the weekends: “He was a terrible barman, and he’ll be the first to tell you that. I think he got sacked about six times during his time there.”

Sam (who confesses of his bartending know-how: “He’s totally right!”) hit the local to celebrate when ‘Hypersonic Missiles’ won him a Critics’ Choice gong at the BRIT Awards in 2019, placing the trophy on the bar. “I owed The Low Lights one for being such a shit barman,” he says. “I wanted them to be proud of us because they fucking certainly wasn’t proud of us when I was around working there!”

“Celebrity stuff freaks me out. I’d rather just live my life”

He’s clearly a key member of the local community, then. How did he see the pandemic impact on his family and friends – especially when the North East faced the toughest Tier Four lockdown restrictions last December? Sam pauses before bluntly saying: “I lost more mates; there was suicides again. Mental health was the biggest thing. We lost friends who had drunk too much.”

A track on the new record, ‘The Dying Light‘, is an epic sequel to ‘Dead Boys’, with the poignant last line of the album ringing out “for all the ones who didn’t make the night”. Sam, unable to truly distance himself from The Boss after all, explains: “It’s very Springsteen. It’s my ‘Jungleland’ or ‘Thunder Road’ – it’s got that ‘Born To Run’ feel; there’s strings and brass [and] it’s fucking massive. It’s a celebration. It’s a triumph over adversity.”

He stresses that it was vital for him to be in regular contact with his friendship circle through that traumatic time: “It becomes important when you lose friends to suicide… You realise it’s always the unlikely folks. We lost a friend to suicide at the beginning of last year and it was someone you’d never expect. It really hits home; it’s important to check in on your mates.”

Sam has alluded in previous interviews to a health condition that he’s not yet ready to fully disclose, and tells NME that he spent three months shielding at the beginning of the pandemic: “I was alone for three months and that was very tough… When you’re completely alone and isolated, it’s impossible. I spent a lot of time drinking and not really looking after myself and eating shit food, but I wrote a lot of good lyrics.”

There’s a certain resulting bleakness to some of his new songs, but Sam also wanted light to shine through. “It’s a darker record, but it’s a celebration of surviving and coming out the other end,” he explains. “It’s upbeat but the lyrics can be quite honest. It’s the most honest thing I’ve done.”

You might expect a young hometown hero to rail at having been denied the chance to capitalise on his burgeoning fame in the last year or so, but Sam insists, “I still have imposter syndrome,” adding: “I don’t feel like it’s happened… I’m walking around the street and people ask for photos and it just feels bizarre. I’m like, really? I feel like I haven’t come out of my shell yet.”

Sam has rarely been one to court celebrity, and revealed in 2019 that he’d turned down the chance to appear in an Ariana Grande video. “It was an honour but I would have just been known as that guy in the video,” he tells NME. “All of my mates would have been flipping their heads off, but I don’t think she would really want an out-of-shape, pale Geordie. I’d rather just live my life, because all of this celebrity stuff freaks [me] out, you know?”

He might have to get used to it: things can only get bigger with the arrival of the new album. “As a record I think this one is leagues ahead [of ‘Hypersonic Missiles’],” he says, “I’m more proud of this than anything I’ve ever done. It’s probably the best thing I’ve done in my life. I just hope people love it as much as I do. With the first album, a lot of those songs were written when I was 19, so I was over half of it [by the time it was released]. Whereas this one is where I’m at now.”

“This is a dark record, but it’s a celebration of surviving and coming out the other end”

Still, he adds: “At the same time, this record is probably going to piss a lot of people off.” He’s referring to a line in one of the more political tracks, ‘Aye’, where he returns to his most enduring bugbear, divisiveness, and claims that “the woke kids are just dickheads”. Sam’s no less forthcoming in person: “They fucking are, though! Some 22-year-old kid from Goldsmiths University sitting on his fucking high horse arguing with some working-class person on some comments section calling them an ‘idiot’ and a ‘bigot’? Nobody engages each other in a normal discussion [online] without calling each other a ‘thick cunt’.”

He’s eager to make this statement, though, come what may: “I don’t fucking care any more. I’m not really sure how the reaction is going to be. People used to say things online about me and I used to get quite hurt about it, but now I’m like, ‘Well, they’re not coming to my house’… [But] I get so angry. In Newcastle we say ‘pet’ and someone was trying to tell me that was fucking offensive towards women. You’re not going to delete my fucking colloquial identity. It’s not even gender-specific; we say it to men and women. My Grandma calls me ‘pet’! That brand of liberalism is fucking destroying the country. We could be getting Boris Johnson and all them pricks out of office if we stopped sweating over shit like that”.

Sam might be outspoken, but he’s self-aware, too. When we were talking politics earlier, he said: “I didn’t want to start on ‘cancel culture’ because I don’t want to sound like Piers Morgan [and] I fucking hate that cunt. But there is a degree of it which lacks redemption; people fuck up. Everyone is a flawed character. If you’re not admitting that you have flaws, then you’re a fucking psychopath. The left-wing seem to be that way and the right-wing are fucking worse than they’ve ever been. Politically I have just lost my shit.”

In all of this uncertainty, though, it seems a sure thing that Sam Fender will take his rightful crown – as soon as the world lets him – with the colossal ‘Seventeen Going Under’. “It’s going to be a hell of a return,” he insists. “I know the fans are still there, you know? So I’m not really worried – I’m ready to go out there and do my thing. Finally!”

EVERY SAM AND TORY SCENE/MENTION (38/?) 

“Kicks Get Chicks” — Cobra Kai Season 4 Episode 6 

Tbh? I won’t lie, I do hope we get more scenes of Johnny interacting with LaRusso’s in S4. I especially want to see him with Samantha, without Miguel or anyone as a buffer. Bc Sam is 100% her dad’s princess and the lead student of the Myagi-do kids, which makes her the one who Johnny really needs to connect to, ya know? (Not to mention Lawrusso ain’t ever gonna happen without her blessing. Sam means too much Daniel, and Johnny knows he needs to get her on good side tbh)

You got me in my feelings. You're so right

Fans were asking forever to see Daniel and Miguel interact, but now we need to see some Johnny and Samantha.

She is the Miyagi-Do Team Captain so to speak, and the perfect person to really show that Johnny can teach Daniel's kids without any bias. (I'm also secretly hoping Johnny teaches Anthony lol, that kid needs Johnny's drill sergeant approach)

Samantha also has her father's sassy hotheadedness feistiness

and Johnny could teach her how to properly channel and harness it with some badass offensive techniques. Which I assume will help her in another fight against Tory, because I'm sure Sam's PTSD isn't completely over. The current Cobra Kai bullying and intimidation isn't going to stop.

And the lawrusso shipper in me is dying for scenes of Johnny desperately trying to gain her approval and insight into her dad LOL

"What's in it for us?"

Johnny leaned away from Princess LaRusso warily. This wasn't the response he'd been expecting when he asked her what kind of things her father liked.

"Us?" He asked instead.

Sam tossed a look and a smile over her shoulder to Miguel, who waved weakly at them from his spot a few feet - safely - away but within earshot.

Johnny let out an annoyed breath. Teenagers.

"Fine," he surrendered. "What do you want?"

"There's a concert on Friday that Miguel and I want to go to. I already bought the tickets, but dad won't let us leave class early. I want you to tell him you said it was okay."

Johnny weighed the pros and cons. He'd be proud of Miss LaRusso if he wasn't being swindled by a kid.

"Deal," he finally said, throwing out his hand to shake on it.

Sam clasped it with a victorious grin.

***

Every day the whole following week Johnny would surprise Daniel with a little gift, a small gesture that never failed to surprise Daniel in its thoughtfulness.

Whether it was a cup of coffee that just happened to be from Daniel's favorite café, or a new bonsai stand that Johnny built himself, it was something unique every time.

Samantha only wished Johnny didn't choose to present these gifts in front of everyone right before class began.

***

Friday afternoon arrived quickly enough, and Samantha went through the pretense of stretching while waiting for class to start and for Johnny's signal that she and Miguel were dismissed.

The other kids began to get into their usual spots in the yard as her dad got ready to address the day's lesson, and as usual that's when Johnny decided to walk up to Daniel with a surprise 'Just because.'

Johnny was holding something behind his back and Sam struggled to make out what it could be. It didn't look like anything she had suggested.

She watched curiously as her dad and Johnny exchanged a few softly, murmured words and joking grins before Johnny held up what looked like an old yearbook to her suddenly stunned-silent father.

Daniel took the book in a daze and flipped through a few pages before seemingly stopping to read something important.

He finished after a few minutes and looked up at Johnny with what he once described to Sam as 'Moon Eyes.'

She quirked an eyebrow in confusion at the display before sucking in a shocked breath as her dad abruptly leaned up and pulled Johnny in for a tender kiss.

In front of everyone.

Daniel pulled away still smiling at Johnny before announcing loudly, "Okay class, why don't we take the day off? You're dismissed!"

Miguel looked pleased enough at his sensei, but did Johnny have to do these things before class began...

I keep seeing complaints that Tory is cartoonishly evil from Sam's POV and those complaints being used to detract from Tory as a character but I can't help feeling that's bogus toward both girls. Sam has scars on her arm and every right to be afraid of Tory, plus the one-dimensional way she views her reflects the one-dimensional way Daniel viewed Johnny for the longest time. And when the viewers in question acknowledge this is only Sam's POV, it seems silly to use that against Tory's character.

I think their rivalry in general has been oversimplified by both the fandom and the writing on the show.

This is a really good point though because Tory looms large in Sam's mind as this "big bad" even before the school fight. You're absolutely right, Sam views people and situations through a very specific lens and I definitely think she got that from her dad. She's very focused on what's "right" AKA whatever she would do in a given scenario. Although even that sliding scale of judgement confuses me sometimes because... so Tory must be a criminal who's stealing wallets in the country club because she swiped one (1) bottle of alcohol but Yasmine is a fine and acceptable friend after pulling a hit and run and bullying Sam's former best friend?? That's a rant for another day lol

And then of course after the fight, Sam's dealing with the repercussions of the fight in the form of scars, the cracked ribs, and of course the PTSD. The Sam & Tory scenes this season are all framed from a perspective that's meant to show how Sam is handling the trauma she experienced in the school fight. We, as the audience, are meant to be experiencing those scenes the way that Sam is: time slowing down, the emphasis on her increasing heartbeat, sounds fading out around her. She dreamed that Tory straight up tried to MURDER HER.

And I'm not trying to invalidate Sam's PTSD in the slightest. I'm actually really glad that the writers chose to highlight how you need to give yourself space to heal mentally as well as physically. But if everything is anchored in Sam's perspective, we're not getting the other half of that story. There's no emphasis on the trauma and repercussions that Tory is also dealing with: she’s been expelled from school; she’s wracked with guilt over Miguel’s injury (so much so that she can’t bring herself to visit him in the hospital); her boyfriend cheated on her and then was horrifically injured and she had to process all of that completely alone. She’s also dealing with being the head of the household at what... 16? She’s taking care of a younger brother and a mom who’s very ill and a pervy landlord.  We get mentions of this in dialogue but we never see it in the same way as Sam’s trauma so it’s not framed to be as sympathetic. How people can recognize that and somehow use it against Tory is beyond me lol

To make things fun drink:

Every time daniel gets mad especially when it has to do with johnny.

Miguel is confused about something

Johnny tries to get with this era but he's a lost soul.

Johnny goes into that pawn shop to get money but his stuff has no value.

Daniel lying about something

Amanda appears and gives daniel a logical solution to situations.

Sam has the chance to tell the truth about something but just doesn't.

Demitri does or says anything dorky

Demitri saying anything funny or sarcastic

Every time johnny drinks. Bonus if he's in jail or trying to fight.

Robby gets protective over anyone

Aisha appears as she needs to come back next season

Lawrusso moments

Johnny has trouble working with his laptop cause he's new when it comes to technology.

Every time carmen and yaya appears

Johnny's toxic masculinity is showing

Johnny has chances to rebuild his relationship with robby but just doesn't.

Possible crimes that should've lead these characters to be charged or in jail.

Any 80's band is mentioned that includes songs and cameros.

Every time Mr. Miyagi is mentioned

A flashback from the karate kid movies is shown.

Kreese appears

Johnny says something insulting yet it's funny at the same time.

Any Dads and/or daddy issues being mentioned.

Hawk giving that look of guilt about his actions but the "no mercy/ need to be badass" mindset gets the best of him.

Clothes that these characters wear could be a little better.

Side note: I'm not talkin about designer clothes or all fancy but sometimes I look and their outfits is questionable and/or don't match.

Replay chosen scenes because he's just funny and it's nice to see how he puts daniel on edge.

Cobra kai and miyagi do kids are at each others throats.

Every time someone got their ass handed to them.

Sam getting blamed for stupid things

These kids coming home bruised tf up like they just got out of a boxing match.

Theories of tory being someone's daughter

Side note: I don't necessarily like these theories cause why would you want her to be a daughter to terry or mike barnes??? Why can't she just be herself with no relation to anyone?

Johnny's beard makes an appearance

Daniel giving someone a gift or anything cause he's a giver.

Every time you hear "Larusso"

Daniel being stubborn

Some songs from the karate kid movies make a come back.

Edit: when I mean drink, I mean just any drink not just alcohol.

Why yellow is the color of originality in the Karate Kid Universe

This is the part III of a post called "Color Theory in the Karate Kid Universe"

Alright, I really didn't expect to be doing a third part of this color thing, in fact, it was all supposed to be one post, but the more I write the more ideas come to my mind, and the more I watch, the more I realise new things, so I'll be analysing the color yellow and its meaning in Karate Kid and Cobra Kai.

First Impressions

The first time that we see yellow with a certain signifance is in a shirt Daniel is wearing under a blue flannel, in that same day he washes Mr. Miyagi's cars for the first time, and later in the movie he gets the first car he washed as a birthday gift, so it might not seem so important, after all the first apperance of the color is only the 50th minute of the movie.

But when we look at Cobra Kai, we see it appear way more. Starting by the oppening title.

Gangs

As the red and blue, I think it's another way to shows teams, and who is with whom. On episode two of season one, we have the oppening title yellow, with a red background, and when Miguel goes to school he's wearing a "shy" red, which is basically a dark red, with a grey shirt under it, meaning he's unconfortable and wants to blend in. When he sits with Demitri and Eli (binary brothers... Sorry couldn't contain myself) they are dressed in yellow tones, espeacially Demitri, which I think means they're both in the same side. Yasmine is also wearing yellow, and it's almost the same yellow that Demetri is, which I think could be a clue for the fact that they would be together later. Samantha is wearing blue though, and so is Kyler, who is wearing white too, but he has a black hat, which could be refrence to him being a bad person in the mind, or just a refrence to Johnny as I metioned in the first part.

When I first started thinking about this, I thought that yellow was Miguel's color, here's why:

He wears it A LOT, definetly more than the other characters, but when I was looking for these images, I realised that from S2E3 to S3E4, he didn't wear yellow at all, he mostly wore red (which shows the influence that Johnny has on him), sometimes blue (which shows that he's not completly Johnny) and he also wore a lot of black (which shows Kreese's influence, even though he was the student that bought Kreese's act the least, he still listened to him.)

Not to mention the fact that in season 1 episode 7, he takes Johnny's advice and acts like him, while Johnny takes Miguel's advice and does things his way, which is shown in their clothes (last picture above), and at first it seemed to me that yellow is Miguel's way of doing things, since red is Johnny's.

Originality

Untill that moment I was really confused, 'cause I saw some other characters such as Hawk, Tory, Robby and even Armand waering it, but not Miguel, I couldn't see a pattern at that point, but there were two scenes that made it very clear.

On the episode five of the third season, right after Johnny's trials of making Miguel walk again fails, he's wearing yellow, but after the concert where he moves his foot, he's back with red and black, until eight episode of the same season, Miguel wears yellow again, right after fighting with Johnny, and that was the thing that caught my attention. Whenever Miguel wasn't quite on Johnny's side, or anyone else's he wore yellow, but still I thought that that was his color.

The thing that really made me see it, was with Hawk. In the episode nine of season three he wears yellow, they go to the zoo to steal the snake, and he ends up seen as "not so cool" since Robby was the one that got it, after that he goes to Daniel's house to beggin what would be the big fight of the season, and he's wearing a red jacket, to show strength, but inside he's still wearing yellow, which means he still has some Eli inside, and that makes yellow the color of orginality, it's when you're being truly yourself.

As you can see in Tory's example, she's at home, so she's totally "comfortable", or at least she's not trying to show anyone anything, and Armand is completly comfortable, after all he doesn't have any manners when eating. But what about Sam and Robby?

Feeling lost

Here's when I noticed that things weren't that simple, in Sam's case, she wears yellow right after seeing Kyler being a bully, so she's confused. Robby is clearly confused, after all he starts the scene not wanting anything to do with his father, then accepts his help, but soon gets mad at him. Hawk doesn't wear it because he's confident enough, that was right after he started realising what he was becoming, we see that throughout the whole season, but he's still resisting, he still wants to stay in that "cool" position, we see that as he tries to hide the "Eli he has inside" by wearing a red jacket.

I think that yellow is only the color of originality for characters who haven't found who they truly are yet. If we look back at the Red vs. Blue thing, we'll see that not only red means more ofense, and blue means more defense, but blue is Daniel's true self, and red is Johnny's true self, of course that they wear different colors some times to show the things I said, but not only things usually doesn't go that well, but they act differently then the usual, so Johnny's originality is red, and Daniel's is blue, but these other character don't know yet.

The logo

That's why I think that Cobra Kai chose yellow to be the title color, this show is telling us, that this rivality is makes no sense, and the new characters are trying to find their own identities, even if they use the help of pre-existing concepts, they still gotta search for themselves.

Now, you may say that this is all bullshit, and the only reason for the show to have the title yellow is because the Cobra Kai original logo is yellow, but I disagree, because at the end of every episode we see a dark silver Cobra Kai logo instead of the yellow, black and red one, which I think means the new perspective Johnny is about to discover: Cobra Kai is very dark, and bad in general.

As I've said before, this is all just theories and I would love to hear the opinion of people who disagree.

Peace! :)