strike first strike hard no mercy these
are the principles that change the
newcomer from taking punishment to
dishing it back out while initially
thought to be a background character
kenny payne's character arc was well
written and another example of history
repeating itself on how cobra kai sells
power what went wrong this is how kinney
became corrupted let's talk about his
rivalry with anthony larusso being
corrupted by cobra kai comparisons to
other characters and more it goes
without saying that there are spoilers
ahead so if you haven't seen season 4
yet don't watch this video and before we
get started if you're not a part of the
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lastly i wanted to give a shout out to
pasco aka for allowing me to use his
music in this video you guys may know
pascal already for my terry silver and
hog videos for his wonderful
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let's do a recap on what we know about
kinney so far feel free to skip to the
next chapter if you want to avoid the
recap but be warned you may miss
important details later on in the
analysis part of the video kenny payne
transfers to west valley middle school
for the second half of his school year
he spends most of his time alone as his
father's deployed in qatar his mother
working long hours and his brother sean
payne isn't juvi because kenny caught
sean's friend stealing from their
parents kenny was about to be attacked
with sean intervened and was arrested
the first day of school is rough as he
has made fun of for dancing being
bullied by anthony larusso and his
friends in gym class kenny scores a
point and accidentally smacks anthony in
the face while defending a fight almost
ensues but leah anthony's childhood
friend in crush prevents it from
happening and compliments kenny on his
shirt after school while playing dungeon
lord kenny gets a friend request and
accepts it assuming he is playing with
leah but ends up being catfished by
anthony and his friends zach tells
anthony to meet leah and others at
balboa park the following night in
cosplay but kenny realizes the bullies
who tricked him after accidentally
breaking anthony's phone while being
recorded zack and the gang attack him
and hold him up while anthony
reluctantly gets ready to attack kinney
breaks away and ends up hiding in a
dumpster after the video of him in
cosplay goes viral kenny visits sean to
confide in him who advises him to find
robbie keane a fellow soulmate he had
run-ins with after finding robbie at the
dojo he tries out for cobra kai against
kyler but because he lacks experience
and has fear within himself he fails to
try out and leaves robbie finds out
where he lives returning the backpack he
left at the dojo when robbie sees that
kenny has gone viral for the second time
he offers to teach kenny a few moves
kenny is still afraid and doesn't pick
up the lessons right away at first but
robbie advises to use his speed for
offense instead of running away when he
returns robbie advises crease to give
him one more tryout after kyler scares
him again kenny catches him off guard by
using his speed to strike first
impressing chris and tori kinney
officially becomes part of cobra kai the
middle school students get a tour of
west valley high and leah is friendly
towards kenny again pointing out the
strawberry on his shirt as nate and bert
two former cobra kai students enter the
restroom while he cleans his shirt they
make fun of him for his association with
her former dojo as kenny prepares the
strike first again he is stopped by
hawke another former cobra kai member
who tells him to quit while he can right
before terry silver officially becomes
co-sensei of cobra kai robbie tory and
kyler all find out about hawk messing
with kenny plotting revenge although he
thinks he's learned everything robbie
teaches him the hard way that moves
don't matter if he doesn't have balance
that night at the drive-in while
bringing back the snacks for cobra kai
kenny attempts to avoid nate and burt
only to once again run into hawk robbie
sees this and assumes that they're
trying to pick on the fellow cobra
leading to a standoff between cobra kai
and miyagi fang the confrontation
ultimately ends in cobra kai being
tricked into standing on the baseball
diamond at the time when the sprinklers
turn on to wet the field as the
tournament approaches kenny continues to
improve and becomes more confident
thanks to karate however anthony goes
jealous of leah bonding with kenny
stealing his clothes and embarrassing
him once again robbie warns kenny not to
go down the same path that he and his
brother are on but kenny responds saying
that he's reaching his breaking point
being taken under silver's wing kenny
grows deadlier by taking advantage of
his opponent's weakness due to having a
change of heart after talking to his
father and leah anthony attempts to
apologize to kenny but having no reason
to trust him kinney goes the group into
following him into the library taking
them down all at once and almost hurting
anthony until they are caught because of
the prior incidents being recorded the
larissos find out that anthony has been
the aggressor resulting in kenny
taunting anthony and being led off the
hook at the all valley kinney goes on to
help cobra kai win the skills division
and also making it to the quarterfinals
thanks to the miyagido techniques he's
learned from robbie kenny and robbie
face each other in the final quarter
final match kinney manages to score a
point thanks to silver's prior lesson
but crease motivates robbie to
ironically shed his weakness ending the
match by not only winning but giving
kenny a bloody nose when anthony talks
to kenny after his match to apologize
once again kenny is still furious and
starts to beat him down until robbie
intervenes kenny swears that larussa
will be in a world of pain once high
school starts telling robbie that there
is no mercy
the first thing we have to talk about is
his rivalry with anthony and how it
compares to history repeating itself and
the essence of johnny and daniel kenny
is a hybrid of a middle school johnny
and daniel obviously with his name being
very similar sounding to johnny kenny is
a bullied youth because of a jealous ex
or a jealous friend anthony in this case
and turns to karate to defend himself
though this time turning to cobra kai
and embracing it fully contrary to
daniel finding himself in miyagido this
arc would also be similar to miguel's
arc in season 1 as miguel was able to
find more confidence and the ability to
defend himself thanks to johnny teaching
him the ways of cobra kai leah anthony's
childhood friend and crush is obviously
the alley in this situation with her
name being an anagram of allies the
difference is that while leah was
anthony's childhood friend they have not
dated compared to johnny and ally it is
this jealousy that larusso has that
causes him to bully kenny further and
for all we know while leah is becoming
more friendly with kenny we don't know
that they're dating either in fact
outside of what happens during gym class
leah is pretty oblivious to the rivalry
that anthony and kenny have going on
instead of possibly knowing the viral
videos that kenny is a part of one of
the more ironic details to note that is
like johnny and daniel kenny and anthony
are different but same even though they
pick on him through dungeon lord and for
playing it it was more than likely
anthony who knew this would work because
of him knowing what the game was and
overhearing kenny being complimented by
leah on his shirt zack even proceeds to
ask how anthony knows so much about the
game implying that because he's played
it before anthony knows everything about
the game and knew how to play it before
they even started to catfish him the
difference is that with kenny unlike
daniel though in a way you could say he
was able to get revenge kinney was
successfully able to get back at the
bullies in more ways than one he not
only was able to evolve his skills
enough to take them out one-on-one
physically but also played up the prior
incidents to the principal and teachers
resulting in getting all of them
suspended and rightly so kenny is the
victim in the situation as anthony had
been the aggressor in many instances
this is implied when kenny changes his
expression to a smile when the larussos
look away as they're talking to the
principal this also mirrors what happens
in 1984 johnny exaggerates what really
happened on halloween to crease claiming
mr miyagi jumped cobra high unprovoked
though this actually works with kenny
because everything is documented and
although anthony did attempt to make
things right it was far too late as
kenny not only had enough of their games
but was still angry over his loss to
robbie more than likely another scene
from the past plays out where in a
dutch-like manner kenny attacks anthony
and beats him until robbie stops it from
getting worse telling him that high
school is only going to be worse even
when robbie tells him that's not how he
trained kenny he's clearly gone off the
deep end and is fully embracing the
creed strike first strike hard no mercy
this corruption is also evidence prior
to the tournament when robbie is
observing kenny practicing on the
punching dummy when recounting what
happened after gym class kenny states
that he's going to take after robbie's
example and beat them up though robbie
tells him that he needs to be smarter
than both him and his brother as
violence landed them both in juvie and
also resulted in robbie being suspended
from school this mirror is a similar
scene in season 1 where miguel finally
gets the concept of striking down and
johnny watches miguel que seriously
punching it from what we see happen at
the end of season 4 it is very likely
that kenya has now switched from
becoming the daniel of his story to
johnny a student rising through the
ranks of kobrakai and changing his role
from the bull lead to the bully
what exactly led to his corruption
through cobra kai one of the more
obvious answers would be the principles
itself but we also have to look back at
some key details of his past and before
he actually started training before
everything happened kinney was easygoing
and happy-go-lucky with hobbies such as
video games and cosplay it's not until
he was picked on that the change started
to occur and i'm not just talking about
cobra kai itself but through someone
from his family his brother we know for
a fact that sean was defending kenny
because of the friends stealing from
their family but it's very possible that
because of sean advising kenny to seek
out robbie keane that he recounted what
happened with robbie during his time in
juvi and why he has to be aggressive to
survive this would also go back to
robbie trying to steer kenny away from
the same path that he and sean are on as
kenny is younger and has more of a
chance to fix his mistakes now before he
goes too far more on this later while
robbie was trying to do the right thing
by teaching kenny self-defense to
protect himself he ran into the same
problem that his father had with miguel
and hawk not explaining the principles
clearly enough to avoid going down the
wrong path before he could set kenny
straight there was another factor that
compounded these issues further terry
silver while silver initially was
against fighting a war against both
miagio and eagle fang as he wanted to
help kris set out what they had planned
to do this changed when daniel refused
to stand down and when kris started to
expose his mercy for johnny during the
middle of the season in match point we
see that silver starts to influence the
students through his teachings mirroring
what kris did in season 2 teaching
alongside johnny and while johnny was
also away the key and prime example is
when silver picks kenny to fight robbie
and to make a point that everyone has a
weakness because robbie kept showing
compassion and feeling sorry for kenny
when he got hit kinney uses this to
catch robbie off guard with the sweep
the same move robbie taught him to use
when someone doesn't have balance silver
proves his point by saying what your
opponent is thinking is key in business
in war in a fight make them think what
you want them to think at school candy
makes quick use of this tricking anthony
and his friends by running away to make
him think that he is weak when instead
he lured them into a trap and took them
out one by one because anthony's
weakness is being a hot head and not
thinking clearly taunting anthony while
the russos are talking to the principal
is evidence of this saying i got you as
his plan worked kenny uses this again
when anthony attempts to apologize to
him at the tournament throwing him off
balance and using this to go on the
offensive this is a reversal of what
happened at the beginning of the season
where instead of kenny fearing anthony
and his friends anthony now fears kenny
even after robbie intervening and
scolding kenny for picking on anthony he
is still cheering for robbie to take out
hawk ironically throwing ravi off
balance
here are my final thoughts on kenny and
what we can see from him in the future
like many other characters kenny has
grasped martial arts quickly in a short
amount of time depending on when exactly
he joined cobra kai he trained in as
little as three to four months and made
it into the quarterfinals of the all
valley his speed is his greatest asset
not only making him hard to hit but also
using that speed to attack his opponents
making it difficult to defend against
his attacks kenny's knowledge of
miyagido also makes him deadly as he's
seen using the drum technique with ease
to defend and counter-attack his
opponents although robbie may have
likely felt sympathy or try to take it
easy on kenny scoring a point on one of
the best fighters in the miyagiverse is
still a notable feat what i imagine his
arc to be like in the future is a
complete 180 of what occurred in season
four now tormenting larusso like johnny
did and forcing anthony to learn how to
defend himself with sean getting out in
the summer or fall and depending on the
timeline of season five i would imagine
that sean is going to side with his
brother and become one of the fighters
that cobra kai needs this could cause
conflict between kenny sean and robbie
as that since robbie is no longer part
of cobra kai and was kenny's mentor he
may have to fight shawn once again as
sean is going to side with his family
with silver's backing more than likely
kobrikai will be up to no good and be
able to escape any punishment they see
fit as someone who was also bullied in
middle school because of the hobbies i
enjoyed kenny is a very relatable
character you can sympathize that he
wants to be able to fight back because
he has no one else to back him up it's
just a shame that things turn out the
way they did and i hope he realizes the
error of his ways in the future but it
may be a long time before that happens
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