From what we know so far, Tory Nichols is Cobra Kai for life.
Even at the end of Season 3, she has a huge vendetta against Samantha LaRusso and Miyagi-Do.
Many people are questioning if she can be redeemed, who is her mother, or if she's related
to somebody from the past movies of Karate Kid. However, no matter how you feel about Sam, Tory
is not completely innocent either, and a majority of her problems started with... well, herself.
This is my analysis and theory on why Tory is the problem in her rivalry with Sam,
including why she's loyal to Kreese, her similarities to Julie Pierce, and more.
Let's recap on what we know about Tory so far. Tory joins Cobra Kai after seeing their
demonstration at Valley Fest, and answers the open challenge issued by Johnny to take on Miguel.
Although Miguel has the upper hand, Tory manages to take him down thanks to her prior kickboxing
experience, impressing not only the senseis but also Aisha. After class, Aisha invites Tory to go
with her to the country club, which she accepts, since Aisha is wary about running into Sam. Aisha
and Sam are civil at first, with Tory interrupting by showing off a bottle she stole from the bar.
After convincing Aisha to drink and mentioning she could swipe all the silverware, Sam suspects that
she stole her mom's wallet, which in reality it was actually due to Trey, Cruz, and Derek.
Sam confronts Tory but Tory protests her innocence, with Aisha also defending her.
This leads to Sam being pushed into the table out of defense by Tory. We then see, Tory, Miguel,
Aisha, Hawk, and Moon at a restaurant not too long after, where Miguel shows Tory his video
he's working on for Sam. When she realizes who his ex is, she convinces him to forget about her
and to go have fun with her instead to make Sam jealous. After hanging out at the playground,
Tory convinces Miguel to go all in and they share a kiss. When Johnny is called away to visit his
dying friend Tommy, Kreese takes over and begins to teach the class his version of Cobra Kai,
slowly poisoning the students including Tory. When asking about Kreese's lessons,
Tory tells Miguel it's not that crazy because of witnessing her mom losing her job over taking
unused food at the end of the night. "The world shows no mercy and neither should we." After the
training at Coyote Creek, Tory invites Miguel to 80s Night at the roller rink where they encounter
Robby and Sam, who are on a date to get away from Sam's family. Tory kisses Miguel in front of Sam
to make her jealous, and begins to grow jealous when she catches Miguel trying to reach out to
Sam. Because of this, Tory pushes over Sam who sweeps her in retaliation. Tory and Sam then face
off at Moon's party, where she challenges Sam to a drinking contest. After almost losing, Sam focuses
and takes the last shot, and Tory falls when she is distracted. Later that night, Tory witnesses
Sam and Miguel sharing a kiss, which upsets her and leads her to fight Sam at the next day at
school, in an all out war between Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai. As they scale the school, Tory starts
to wield her spike bracelet, but before losing, traumatizes Sam and also leaves a scar on her
arm. Tory screams when she sees Miguel falling, and later that night stands by Kreese when Johnny
returns to the dojo. However, this does not last long as we learn at the beginning of Season 3,
Tory has been expelled for starting the fight, is now on probation while doing community service,
and looking after her sick mom and her younger brother. Kreese offers her spot back in the dojo,
but Tory refuses at first, because of her need to work two jobs to pay bills. After picking up
on her hint, Kreese makes an arrangement with her landlord, allowing her to rejoin with Cobra
Kai. Tory is not seen again until she shows up to assist Hawk and others in their fight against
Miyagi-Do at the laser tag arena. Due to Sam still being traumatized by their last encounter, Tory
quickly turns the tide and also encourages Hawk to break Demitri's arm. The next day, Tory is not
only surprised that Hawk broke Demetri's arm, but the fact that Hawk also showed no mercy to Brucks.
She admits that she still hasn't seen Miguel, and also makes quick work of the new recruit Sarah.
Tory also finally sees Miguel for the first time since the school fight, where he is
at the sushi place she works at, where he was taking pictures of Johnny before she showed up.
Miguel is slightly upset at her not visiting, while Tory is still mad about Miguel kissing Sam
and expressing her want for revenge on Miyagi-Do. When advising that she needs help with her family,
Tory thinks he's calling her crazy and leaves. Tory also backs Kreese's plan to confront Johnny
at the park, thanks to Hawk revealing the location of his new dojo. Robby encounters Tory at the
probation office, and she warns him that Sam will turn on him. Tory also slowly tries to convince
Robby to join Cobra Kai, telling him how Kreese taught her to channel her hate, and also inviting
him to help with Hawk's plan to retrieve the snake for Kreese. Kreese tells the group that Miyagi-Do
and Eagle Fang are joining together, which upsets both Robby and Tory. Tory storms off and then
shows up to the LaRusso household, leading an invasion and all-out brawl inside the house.
Tory manages to corner Sam and still has the psychological advantage at first,
but Sam is able to fight back and hold her own, ending the fight in a stalemate. Upon leaving,
she warns Miguel and Hawk to watch their backs, but Demitri makes sure that they won't need to.
We need to look at what makes Tory so loyal to Kreese.
Although this is very evident in Season 3, seeds were sown subtly as early as Season 2.
When Johnny allowed Kreese to keep showing up to the dojo, Kreese helped Cobra Kai look strong at
Valley Fest, leading Tory to want to join. As the two taught together for a brief period of time,
Kreese took over as primary instructor due to Johnny having to visit Tommy. Because of this,
Kreese left a strong impression on the new recruits, especially asking Tory to finish
Mitch after a duel. Although Miguel voiced his disapproval, Tory seemed to agree with Kreese's
philosophy as it was relatable to her upbringing and the world being unfair. Kreese saying “You're
either a winner or a loser, and there are no losers in this dojo,” sticks to Tory so much,
she brings it up to Miguel in Season 3 by saying “what matters is who wins in the end.” When the
students train at Coyote Creek, it is evident in a short amount of time that Tory is not only more
aggressive but also proficient in Cobra Kai's style. This is also seen in the school fight,
constantly being on the offensive and also was prepared to critically injure Sam when having her
by the hair. Although Kreese is excommunicated for a brief period of time, Tory stands by Kreese when
he takes the dojo away from Johnny. At first, Tory does express some regret and feels guilty about
what happened at the school, as evidenced in her conversation with Kreese. However due to Kreese
paying her bills, Tory has no problem returning to the dojo. Although it's unclear how Tory knew
that Miyagi-Do was attacking Hawk and his gang, it is more than likely that Kreese instructed
her to go after Sam to settle the score, as she is bent on getting revenge on Miyagi-Do. By the late
part of Season 3, it is clear that she is fully brainwashed by Kreese, and even mentions to Robby
how he taught her to channel the hate and use it to inflict pain on others. Kreese also instructed
her, Hawk, Kyler, and others to attack both Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang at the LaRusso household,
as they were determined to end it on the night it all began. Tory goes so far as to call Hawk
and Miguel both traitors, as she sees Kreese being the only true sensei that Cobra Kai needs.
Let's also take a look at her rivalry with Sam, and believe it or not, why Tory was the instigator
in most of their confrontations. Now I do want to make something perfectly clear – Sam also
made her fair share of mistakes with Tory, which I will expand upon in a future video but this is
Tory's video, so we'll be focusing specifically on her. What caused their first confrontation
to go south is due to the fact that Tory not only stole a bottle of alcohol from the bar,
but also the fact that she bragged she could rob anyone else that she wanted to. Thanks to Trey,
Cruz, and Derek, wallets do go missing and Tory's previous statement causes Sam to think
she did steal her mom's wallet. However, Aisha was vouching for Tory that she had nothing to do
with it, and out of defense, Tory did push Sam who tried to grab her bag. Now, after all that,
Tory REALLY had no reason to go out of her way to mess with Sam even more. It was only realizing
that she was Miguel's ex that she felt like she had to do something. Prior to this, Tory and
Miguel only had one interaction when she answered the challenge to face him. Although the gesture to
get his mind off of Sam was friendly at first, Tory did ask Miguel to go all in and kiss her.
What's interesting about all this is in Season 3, she asks Miguel “did you go out with me just to
make her jealous?”, when in fact it was her idea in the first place to forget about Sam, have fun,
and make her want what she can't have. Speaking of that, to rub it in Sam's face and to go along
with her idea, Tory did kiss Miguel in front of Sam. When Miguel was trying to clear the air,
it is out of jealousy that Tory notices this and purposely knocks over Sam. After Sam sweeps her,
she also makes her injury look worse than it really is, prompting to have Robby and Sam thrown
out by security with a devious smile on her face. Tory is also very snarky to Sam when challenging
her to a drinking contest. Although they were evenly matched at first, it's evident that
Tory is a sore loser, even though her not being focused is what made her lose in the first place.
Obviously, Sam and Miguel kissing each other was not OK by any means, as they were both in
relationships at the time. Tory did have a right to know what happened, but was starting an all-out
brawl at school the way to do it? (Not gonna lie, still one of my favorite scenes in the series).
Kreese's teachings had Tory warped so much that she was willing to hurt Sam with a weapon.
Although it is not seen, Tory soon loses all feelings of sorrow for Miguel she had at first,
as her main focus is now to take revenge on Miyagi-Do. Tory is also dangerous when at the
laser tag place, as Sam is still traumatized by the last encounter she had with her. When talking
to Robby later on, she admits that she was mad at everybody, including Miguel, Sam, and Robby, but
thanks to Kreese's teachings, all she cares about now is using the hate and showing No Mercy. Kreese
also knew what he was doing when he told Cobra Kai that Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang started to work
together, as he instructed her to lead the attack on the LaRusso household. Tory tries to target
Sam, but she is constantly cut off by Miyagi-Do students. When cornering her, Tory is completely
crazed and shows that she has been training with nunchaku, more than likely thanks to Kreese. Even
though she is disarmed, Tory still swears that she will have revenge and that it's far from over.
One of the most interesting things that I've seen in the comments lately is how Tory is almost
a dark version of Julie Pierce, the only other teenager that Mr. Miyagi taught. Both either lost
a parent or their parents at a young age. Prior to undergoing full training, both have experience
in martial arts; Julie was taught karate by her father and Tory previously took kickboxing
classes. Mr. Miyagi goes on to be a father figure and a sensei to Julie, while Kreese does somewhat
of the same for Tory. Tory is noted for her delinquent behavior as evident in Season 2 and 3,
while Julie does the same by sneaking into the school at night and being defiant towards her
grandmother. Their first meeting with their eventual significant other doesn't go the
greatest – Julie wants nothing to do with Eric because of his association with the Alpha Elite,
and Tory manages to overpower Miguel and also is not a fan of his ex. Both are also associated with
a hawk – Julie cares for a hawk named Angel while Tory is friends with fellow student Eli Moskowitz.
Due to their behavior, they face the consequences and are either expelled from school or suspended
from school. Tory's fashion sense of wearing crop tops is very similar to a majority of
the outfits Julie wore in The Next Karate Kid. Both have their sensei interfere on their behalf
due to harassment – Kreese takes care of the landlord while Miyagi takes care of the guys
harassing Julie at the gas station. Unlike Daniel, Julie was trained almost exclusively on kicks.
This is similar to Tory's style in Cobra Kai where although she does punch at times (and that's what
also Mr. Miyagi trained her on), she is seen using a lot of kicks in the fight she has with
Ned later on. Both also kiss their significant other during a nighttime setting – Julie kisses
Eric after the prom while Miguel kisses Tory after hanging out on the playground.
Both fight a rival from a different dojo because of them messing with their significant
other - Julie fought Ned because of him messing with Eric (not to mention he also harassed Julie
at school), which is somewhat similar to Tory fighting Sam for messing around with Miguel.
They are also able to overpower this rival or a male counterpart, as seen in different scenes.
Here are my final thoughts on Tory and whether she could be redeemed.
What makes Tory dangerous is that similar to Hawk, Miguel, and Robby, she has trained only for a
short amount of time and has become a proficient fighter in that time frame. Although she took a
lot of damage in the fight, Tory was able to pin down Miguel due to him letting his guard down.
Thanks to her prior kickboxing training, she is also able to utilize this along with Cobra Kai's
teachings to be a powerful striker. Tory has also displayed some grappling ability, not only with
Miguel but with Sam in the school fight. Speaking of Sam, despite only training for the short amount
of time as mentioned above (which was during the summer), Tory is more than a match for Sam,
who has studied Miyagi-Do the longest out of the students. Because of Cobra Kai's training,
she is also able to take more damage without slowing her down. As Season 3 rolls around,
Tory has grown even stronger and is able to take down Miyagi-Do students with very few
strikes. It is very likely that Kreese trained her even more in weaponry, as shown with her mastery
of the Nunchucks. Although she issues a warning to Hawk and it may be implied that Cobra Kai will
jump Hawk at some point in Season 4, you also have to remember that Tory was surprised and almost
afraid of Hawk during his beat down on Brucks. If Hawk is also able to keep this psychological
advantage in a match against Tory, there is no doubt he would win the fight. Can she be redeemed?
I think it is possible but it would have to take something very drastic to happen. Kreese's grip on
her would not be broken so easily, and because of Hawk defecting to Miyagi-Do & Eagle Fang,
Kreese would have to rely on Robby and Tory to lead the team in the All-Valley.
I would love the idea of Julie Pierce being the one to redeem Tory and it would make sense,
but as of now it is unknown if we will see any Next Karate Kid characters, despite them being
canon. The only other way I would see it happening and if she is willing to listen, is possibly a
combination of multiple characters – Miguel, Sam, Hawk, and even Johnny trying to convince Tory
to realize that Kreese is only using her for his own agenda. I am also OK with not everybody being
redeemed either, and characters like Kreese, Silver, Barnes, and unless it changes, Robby,
are lost causes. Until then, we will have to see what Season 4 brings to the table.
Let me know what you guys think in the comments down below – what way could Tory be redeemed or
do you think she is Cobra Kai for life? If you enjoyed the video, consider subscribing,
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Thanks for watching, stay beautiful, stay awesome, and we'll catch you around next time.