Cobra Kaiis a nostalgia-filled good time for fans of the originalKarate Kidmovies. The series has relied heavily on its original fan base to gain interest, bringing in fan-favorite characters like Ally Mills and Terry Silver to give peeks into their modern lives. Despite that heavy reliance on flashbacks and explanations of just what happened in those movies to the new generation, the show has managed to move beyond the nostalgia in later seasons with a strong crop of characters led by the teenagers at the center of the story.
With the original season focused heavily on Johnny Lawrence and his new student Miguel, fans might have initially gravitated to those characters. While it’s great to see Johnny get redeemed in the series - he’s not an intentional bully, but someone who has learned to make some terrible decisions - that redemption doesn’t actually make him the best character in the show. The same is true for Daniel LaRusso. Cobra Kai has served to give Daniel more layers than simply the guy who does the right thing, but neither of the former high school rivals are the best characters in the show. The bestCobra Kaicharacters are actually some of the newest ones.
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Samantha LaRusso
Samantha LaRusso is initially set up as a young woman who has “outgrown” her interest in karate. Seeing Miguel stand up for himself against school bullies pulls her back in though. When that happens, the audience is led to believe she’ll simply be a carbon copy of Daniel. She agrees with his philosophy of defense instead of offense to start, and she spends most of her time getting into romantic entanglements. By the end of Season 2, however, Sam has a shock to her system when she gets into the massive brawl between dojos at school.
It’s that fight that actually sets Sam’s story in motion and turns her into one of the most interesting characters in the show. As much as Sam wants to be the bigger person and follow her father’s instructions, she sees what he doesn’t: that if she sits back and does nothing, nothing changes. Sam’s rivalry with Tory leads her to want to make a more active stance, but her PTSD from the fight certainly limits her from being able to do that. Sam is a real-time example of what happens when someone starts to fight back, and she excels once she finds her footing by combining bothstyles of Eagle Fang and Miyagi-do karate.
Kenny Payne
Kenny is a new, much younger, addition to the show in Season 4. He’s a glimpse at a potential new class of karate students if the show outgrows its original teens. As an eighth-grader, there’s plenty of time to keep telling his stories. Kenny alsoconnects the Cobra Kai and the LaRusso storiesin an interesting way. He seeks Robby out because Robby was in juvenile detention with his brother. Kenny just wants to find a way to defend himself from his own bully - who happens to be Daniel LaRusso’s youngest son. Kenny, however, is what happens when someone is pushed too far. He doesn’t just decide to fight back like Sam does. Kenny decides to make the fight his own.
By the end of the fourth season of the show, it’s Kenny who is manipulating adults to see things his way and using the skills he’s learned from Cobra Kai to torment Anthony LaRusso. He promises that he’s not holding back anymore, making him the potential new bully for the show’s younger students. Considering how fast of a learner Kenny is, picking up complicated karate skills from Robby in a matter of weeks, he’ll be a force to be reckoned with. Whether he’ll learn from the same mistakes others have made remains to be seen.
Eli ‘Hawk’ Moskowitz
Eli could be a cautionary tale for Kenny. He starts off the series as more of a Daniel LaRusso character, just wanting to keep other people from beating him up. As he fully embraces Johnny Lawrence’s teachings, however, Eli transforms himself into Hawk, courtesy of a tall mohawk and a tattoo of his namesake across his back. When Eli becomes Hawk, there’s a gradual shifting in his personality. ˙He makes himself take up space instead of shying away from confrontation. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.The deeper he gets into Cobra Kai, however, the farther he gets from Eli and the more he becomes like the bullies of Cobra Kai past. Hawk is loud, confrontational, and always ready for violence.
Hawk gets swept up in the pack mentality of his friends at the dojo. They’re always pushing just a little farther, being more violent than a situation warrants, seeing just what they can get away with. The audience wonders just how far Hawk will go right up until he breaks Demetri’s arm during a fight. That’s when the audience wonders if he’s past the point of no return, but he’s not. When he decides that he’s become someone else, Hawk becomes a version of Eli again and starts trying to find himself, which is what makes him such a great character.
He freely admits to Demetri, Daniel, and Johnny that he’s not entirely sure who he is anymore. The show, however, gives him the space to figure that out.
Tory Nichols
Tory exploded into the series in Season 2. A new friend for Aisha, Tory became the second female member of Cobra Kai and a thorn in Sam’s side. Her initial introduction made her seem like something of a troublemaker and a bully, but the subsequent seasons have really fleshed out her character to allow the audience to empathize with her.
Tory works as Sam’s own personal villain because the audience also wants to root for her. Tory is a teenage girl who is the sole breadwinner for her family. She’s got a little brother who could be taken away from her at any minute and a sick mother who might not make it to the end of each season. Tory has been fighting for her own survival her entire life. Her sharing the Cobra Kai mentality of striking first makes perfect sense.
That’s why Season 4 is such a great season for her. Tory has to start thinking beyond the idea of striking first when she realizes that her aunt could get custody of her brother. She starts making an effort to turn her life around, even seeking out Amanda LaRusso for help. Season 4 allows Tory to be vulnerable. The season ending with her finding out a referee was paid off to make sure she won her All Valley Tournament match puts her at a prime spot in the storyline to turnagainst Cobra Kai in Season 5as well.
The Cobra Kai Theme Is Layers
WhileCobra Kaiallows the audience to see that there are more layers to both Daniel and Johnny, theKarate Kidfranchise had the chance to do that with the original movies as well, but it didn’t.Just like most 1980s action movies, it stuck to specific character types. Daniel is always the hero and Johnny is always the villain. The series provides those layers for its new characters right off the bat.
Sam is set up as the hero, but she’s allowed to make mistakes and be messy like the villain of the show would. Kenny slips from underdog hero to potential villain. Tory and Hawk have a villainous arc, but both show their vulnerabilities and potential for redemption regularly. The layers to the characters and their growth allow the four of them to truly be the best characters ofCobra Kai- so far.
The first four seasons ofCobra Kaiare currentlyavailable to stream on Netflix. The series has already been renewed for Season 5.
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