Tory Deciding Winning Isn’t Worth It, That’s Fine. So At Least If She Loses She Won’t Be Disappointed.

the problem with making axel and zara too overpowered (OP) in part 2 of cobra kai.

going into part 2 my biggest worry was that they were going to make axel and zara too OP- like never losing a fight in the tournament, and unfortunately that’s exactly what happened.

the issue with making them too OP is that it messes with the balance of our existing characters. when you introduce new characters and have them win every fight without losing not even one it cheapens the tournament and it also screws over our existing characters.

axel and zara could have been strong, shown as threatening without the need to make them bulldoze throughout all of their matches.

by never letting them lose, it sets up absolute annoying and ridiculous discourse like this:

‘it doesn’t make sense for this person to beat this person’

‘they were nerfed’

‘they only won because of plot armour’

and let’s be honest. the ‘plot armour’ discourse is fucking stupid. every character in the show has plot to some extent. if they didn’t, they wouldn’t have made it this far in the show. but also, why would they have 2 characters who were introduced in part 2 of the last season win over sam, miguel and robby who have been here since season 1 and tory who has been here since season 2. that literally wouldn’t make any sense.

moving on, if our existing characters had lost to the new characters that wouldn’t been fine. like that is not the issue here. the issue is that axel and zara completely dominated the tournament. it should have been balanced.

axel and zara should have been shown to be beatable by actually losing matches in the tournament. and if the writers didn’t want them losing matches, the least they could’ve down was allow them to take hits in their matches. here’s how:

1. zara vs another competitor in different dojo (like tiger strike or redentores) in an early round OR vs tory or sam | let zara lose a match to one of them but come back stronger later in the tournament, showing she can adapt easy from a loss.

2. axel vs competitor | have axel lose a match against the competitor in a very close match, only after giving the person he is fighting against a really tough time, pushing his competitor to his limits.

3. injures and exhaustion playing a role here | show them both struggling with fatigue, and having minor injuries, proving that they aren’t fucking invincible and the tournament is tough for everyone involved.

but instead, we got axel and zara just bulldozing their way through the tournament like it was nothing. the big brawl too. in the big brawl, no one landed a hit on axel. zara beat tory in the opening fight with cobra kai vs iron dragons and in the big brawl tory only managed to land one kick on zara before zara regained control. it’s sooo frustrating that they were made out to be so untouchable and invincible.

what makes this worse is learning that choreography was cut that actually showed them both taking hits. i’ve posted this on my blog here a bit ago but there was choreo cut in which tory was getting the upper hand on zara but that didn’t make the cut.

zara was also supposed to take hits in the semi finals against maria. this comes from the woman who plays maria (jewels) in an interview on youtube.

and axel was also meant to take hits from kwon in the big brawl. this also came from an interview with brandon who plays kwon.

like.. that’s still not ideal but it’s at least better than making them untouchable.

this has been sitting in my drafts for a while now and i’m posting this ahead of part 3 since that drops in a few days, also the fact that we know someone is gonna be beating axel and zara in the sekai taikai.

i can’t believe i have to sit through ‘axel/zara was nerfed’ and ‘it doesn’t make sense for zara/axel to loose to..’ ‘… beating axel/zara is unrealistic’

like dude cobra kai was never a realistic show in the first place, don’t piss me off. ‘in reality this character would win’ no shit dude. like that argument is so stupid and irrelevant. like thank you so much for pointing out the obvious ??

as if those people who say this aren’t insufferable enough they’re gonna be even more insufferable now that they’ve basically been given the ammo to say all of this shit.

like i’m truly so annoyed about it, but hey. what can you doooo?

cobra kai writers you had ONE JOB! ONE!

big big sigh.

jj maybank + finally picking that lock open

For @yellowlaboratory 💛

FELIX MALLARD & ANTONIA GENTRY in season 2 episode 2 of ginny and georgia

and i hate that the show is never gonna address robby’s SA. they’re gonna brush over it like nothing happened as if we’re stupid or something.

robby was drunk as fuck and didn’t give consent at all, and they’re sick for trying to push it as robby ‘cheating’ when it’s clearly not what that is.. AT ALL.

the show isn’t gonna address it, and the people who are watching the show, the viewers, are making excuses for zara, saying that it didn’t happen (are y’all blind?) that robby should be lucky, ‘it’s fine cause zara is hot’

it’s truly disgusting and disturbing. it’s all really nasty. i hate how when she kissed him after leaving her room he literally looked so lost, numb and you could tell he was completely out of it.

plastering it as a ‘hook-up’ or ‘cheating’ is nuts when the show clearly implied it as SA. it’s not taken seriously in the show, and a whole group of people are not taking it seriously as well.

if you don’t think it’s SA, im gonna assume you’re dumb or dense, didn’t pay attention or just realise it’s SA but you don’t give a shit.

im so sorry that *these* are your writers robby keene.

(there’s so much more i wanna say about how robby’s character was done incredibly dirty in part 2 but i feel like this rant was necessary instead of discussing everything as a whole.)

tory getting some much-needed hugs in season 6 🥹

“She wasn’t forcing him in any way” YOU chose to show Robby so drunk he couldn’t talk and could barely stand. YOU chose to show Robby come out of that room and say he couldn’t remember what happened. YOU chose to show him stand there like a zombie unresponsive while she kissed him and then stumble away like he didn’t know what planet he was on. YOU chose to depict a situation where one party so obviously could not consent, and the other was acutely aware of that fact. Stop playing fucking dumb and admit you’re a pathetic rape apologist and move the fuck on.

keenry- tory’s pov (im insane)

s3

tory accepting robby and giving him advice related to training and home life

tory inviting robby to hang out with the cobras and defending him against hawk

s4

tory telling robby to stay when he was going to leave the dojo

tory smiling at robby when he respected her boundaries

tory smiling at robby and asking him what he had in mind in order to get revenge on hawk without fighting

tory asking robby to prom and obviously lying when she said it was strictly a tactical move

tory trusting robby enough to open up a little and resting her head against his

tory allowing herself to fully forget about sam and miguel because she liked robby too much

tory pulling robby into the pool and being silly with him

tory asking robby if he was alright after his fight with kenny at the avt, going after him and being being the only one concerned for him after his loss against hawk

tory almost smiling at robby when he wished her luck before her fight with sam (silver interrupted their moment, he hates keenry and regrets setting them up i can feel it)

tory looking at robby while holding her trophy

s5

tory telling robby she missed him

tory admitting to kreese that she didn’t like hiding the truth from robby

when robby came to cobra kai, tory’s moves were delayed and when silver was giving the class commands not chanting no mercy with the other cobras. she gave him a final look before he left

tory punching through stone in the name of love

tory assuring robby she was ok when he asked about her hand

tory looking out for herself and robby, making sure they didn’t violate their probation

s6

tory shamelessly kissing robby in front of devon when she found out he was reinstated (THIS WAS GOLD KWKWKWKSNDMD)

tory sticking around at the double date robby brought her too, even if it was kinda uncomfortable

tory asking robby about kenny and supporting him when he wouldn’t give up

tory stopping kenny from using a bat on robby, working with sam to keep kenny away from their boyfriends

tory entrusting robby with the fact that she ran into kreese

tory supporting robby when he opened up a little about his second place trauma

tory apologizing to robby for not showing up to the captain’s match sooner

tory using a softer tone with robby when he tried to console her after the news of her mom broke out

tory putting their relationship on break, knowing how her rejoining cobra kai has affected him and not wanting to cause further harm

tory confirming to robby when he asked that it was a pause, not a breakup, and that she still wanted to see him on the podium next to her just like they said

tory wishing robby good luck even after he reminded her of her trust issues (which she’s improved on)

tory stealing zara’s phone and outing her to her followers (even tho my girl misunderstood what zara actually did to robby)

tory reminding robby that she never broke up with him, still willing to stay with him even under the impression that he cheated on her

tory yelling “kiss this bitch” to zara before kicking her. i know for a fact that tory would be enraged if she found out what zara actually did and i would do anything to see that play out in the show

bonus: tory looking at robby. she be doing this every season it’s so cuteeee

did i forget anything? idec at this point bc this has been sitting in my drafts too long 💀

making a robby version that i was planning on posting at the same time as this, but it’s sitting in my drafts unfinished and im lazy :P