Robby and Miguel buried their beef in Cobra Kai season 5, but it is still hard not to wonder who among them is Cobra Kai’s bonafide “Karate Kid.”
While there may never be a definitive, universally-accepted conclusion to the “Robby vs. Miguel” debate, one of the two characters has arguably earned the title of Cobra Kai’s “Karate Kid.” Robby and Miguel’s first official Cobra Kai fight ensued in season 1 when both reached the All-Valley Tournament’s final. After Miguel’s win, their rivalry took a grim turn in Cobra Kai season 2 and even got Miguel seriously injured during a brutal high school rumble. Taking advantage of Robby’s situation, Kreese ultimately took him under his wing and trained him to become a Cobra Kai, which seemed to mark the inception of the young fighter’s villain arc.
However, with his karate foundations set in Miyagi Do’s philosophies, it wasn’t long before Robby realized that as powerful as it may make him feel, Cobra Kai is not the right dojo for him. Since their rivalry began in season 1, Miguel and Robby have dipped their feet in different dojos and matured as fighters and human beings. This newfound maturity helps them forget their bad blood in Cobra Kai season 6 and prompts them to start a new arc of their relationship as friends. With this, while Miguel’s Cobra Kai story proves that honor and compassion are essential qualities for a fighter, Robby’s journey establishes that, like Daniel, he embodies a balanced approach to martial arts.
Robby’s Cobra Kai And Daniel’s Karate Kid Parallels Explained
Daniel and Robby have followed a similar rite of passage in their respective Cobra Kai and Karate Kid journeys. For instance, both were angry young men but found some peace after learning Mr. Miyagi’s karate principles. They had to start from the basics like Mr. Miyagi’s unconventional sanding the wooden floor, varnishing the fence, and waxing on and off techniques. While they were both initially skeptical about the Miyagi way, they understood its value when they applied it in real combat.
However, further down their storylines, their anger got the best of them and both ended up straying away from Miyagi Do. While Daniel LaRusso started channeling his anger and frustrations by training under Terry Silver in Karate Kid III, Robby did the same by turning to Cobra Kai. Both did exceptionally well in their new dojos but eventually realized that training with Sensei Kreese and Silver’s Cobra Kai philosophies was taking them down a self-destructive path. Ultimately, Daniel and Robby found their way back to Miyagi Do and learned to balance their learnings from the two contrasting dojos.
Why Robby Is Closer To Karate Kid’s Daniel Than Miguel
Similar to Karate Kid’s Daniel, Robby represents the dichotomy between anger and personal growth. While a part of him is still driven by his rage towards his father, circumstances, and troubled past, he has learned to curb his emotional bearings using Mr. Miyagi’s ways. Miguel, on the other hand, has a had a completely different journey from the beginning itself. Unlike Robby, Miguel started learning karate at Johnny Lawrence’s Cobra Kai dojo and only moved on to Miyagi Do much later in the show.
Although Miguel, too, took some toxic Cobra Kai philosophies a little too seriously in the beginning, his karate endeavors were never driven by anger. Miguel’s fighting style is also a far cry from Robby and Daniel’s since he only practiced the Miyagi way during Daniel and Johnny’s brief alliance. Miguel was no less of an underdog than Daniel and Robby when he started practicing karate, but the similarities between Robby and Daniel’s storylines are far too explicit to ignore. Therefore, given how Robby’s Cobra Kai arc nearly emulates Daniel’s from the Karate Kid series, it would not be unfair to label him as Cobra Kai’s very own “Karate Kid.”
How Robby And Daniel’s Parallels Make Cobra Kai Better
The parallels between Robby and Daniel’s arcs maintain continuity between the Karate Kid movies and the Cobra Kai series. This, in turn, not only instills a sense of nostalgia but proves how the show’s creators have ingeniously portrayed similar character beats and dynamics in newer creative ways. It also makes Cobra Kai less predictable since one would expect Robby to tread his father Johnny Lawrence’s path instead of following Daniel LaRusso. More than anything else, Robby and Daniel’s Cobra Kai parallels also make the whole franchise better by proving that Mr. Miyagi’s philosophies endure the test of time and break all boundaries set by generation gaps and dojo rivalries.
