in the universe of cobra kai there has
always been a debate on which way is
best do you strike first or do you find
balance and while season three almost
seemed to erase that area of gray with
characters in the three dojos season
four did a great job of bringing that
back and applying it to some characters
that sorely needed it one of them being
sam larusso as i mentioned in my prior
video she is certainly one of if not the
most polarizing character of cobra kai
and her arc in season 4 further proved
that should she have stuck with miyagido
or is eagle fang right about
pre-striking this is why sam has changed
let's talk about a rivalry with tory her
arc in season 4 what the future holds
and more
let's recap on what we know about sam so
far since this is a continuation of my
previous video why sam is a polarizing
character i'm only going to recap the
events relevant to her arc in season 4.
feel free to skip to the next chapter to
avoid the recap but be warned you may
miss important details i'll discuss
later on in the video this is also a two
part video as it goes hand in hand with
the white tories change video so be sure
to check that out after watching this
video for torrey's perspective sam and
the rest of miyagido struggle to mesh
their style with eagle fang after the
events of december 19th agreeing with
miguel that they should try everything
to unite the dojos she seeks out rabbi
to try to put the past behind them and
invites him to come back however because
of his prior conversation with tori and
his anger at both mr larusso and his
father robbie ultimately declines thanks
to hawk's idea sam helps miguel and the
rest of the students put together an
okinawan sparring deck as johnny and
daniel start to respect each other's
philosophies johnny takes the miyagido
under his wing while daniel trains the
eagle fang students at first sam and the
rest of the students refused to
participate in the roof jumping exercise
deeming it too dangerous however after a
heart-to-heart with johnny and realizing
she wants to follow her own path sam
successfully jumps the gap during
cindy's birthday party sam realizes that
tori now works as a princess for hire
after she was fired from her job at the
sushi restaurant sam antagonizes tori
verbally while tori retaliates with
getting the kids to throw glitter on sam
ultimately when she sees sam and miguel
kiss tori storms out and possibly leaves
her job when kobra kai comes face to
face with miyagi fang at the drive-in
the fight is avoided when miguel tricks
the rival dojo into looking for them at
the baseball diamond at the time the
sprinklers come on because of this sam
and the rest of the students witnessed
silver and crease confront johnny and
daniel after coming home from school
early sam and daniel talk about the
upcoming duel with johnny where sam
tries to convince daniel to have an open
mind ultimately it goes nowhere as we
see johnny's influence rubs off on sam
concerning daniel sam and miguel keeps
score the fight between johnny and
daniel where it ends in a draw after
learning of hawk's new haircut johnny
and daniel part ways and the alliance
dissolves when daniel and sam returned
from training after learning about the
new skills division tensions rise as
tori is seen discussing with amanda how
to get back into school feeling that her
parents don't want to listen to her sam
visits aisha and seeks out her advice on
how to deal with tori interpreting the
advice has to strike first sam warns
tory that if she doesn't watch her step
she will get expelled again although she
continues to train in miyagido sam
secretly resumes her training with eagle
fang joining johnny and miguel at the
prom miguel and sam are thrown off
balance by tori and robbie arriving his
dates following the dance sam starts the
fight with tori after an argument at the
after party involving miguel and robbie
ultimately sam and miguel fall into the
pull with tori leaving the two on bad
terms sam progresses to the
quarterfinals at the all valley with
both demetri and eli after realizing
that robbie taught kobrakai miyagido and
piper knows her defense patterns sam
switches styles the eagle fang to throw
her opponent off balance and win her
match before the finals match with tori
sam and miguel reconcile not knowing
that miguel plans a search for his
father when johnny and daniel reconcile
they both agree to coach sam in the
finals after a hard-fought match where
sam uses her new style she ends up
losing her match due to a crooked ref
being paid off by terry silver to favor
cobra kai at this point it is assumed
that sam will continue to train under
both daniel and chosin as they come up
with a new plan to stop cobra kai
let's get the elephant in the room out
of the way and talk about a rivalry with
tori and how events unfolded between the
two this season it's safe to say because
of her misinterpretation of johnny's
philosophy sam was more of the
instigator due to a combination of this
and her ptsd as always this is by no
means an excuse for a character but
rather the reason in their first
interaction sam heck will story while
she's entertaining a birthday party by
suddenly bringing up past events in
their rivalry coaxing the kids to get
tori to sing and then insult her singing
after she finishes as a result of this
torii tricks the kids into throwing
glitter on sam this escalates into sam
purposely kissing miguel in front of
tory while she watches pulling the page
out of tory's book when she did this at
the roller rink at the drive-in when
tory comes to help robbie in the stare
down sam comes to hawk's defense because
of her loyalty to the dojo it's only
until miguel intervenes that the
argument between the girls comes to a
halt because of silver and daniel coming
to an agreement on no fighting before
the tournament contact seizes between
the two until tory reaches out to amanda
for help regarding her home life when
sam protests her issues with this this
is one of the few times where we see her
ptsd resurface because of her past
issues with tori tori's presence hyper
arouses her brain putting her into fight
or flight mode more specifically on an
autopilot of anger because she doesn't
feel in control of the situation this is
why she keeps interrupting her parents
and interjects as she feels that she
won't be safe because of what happened
at the school fight however amanda isn't
able to tell sam why she can relate to
tory or know that she's telling the
truth because of sam's defense
mechanisms and her mother is right tori
is focused on trying to take care of her
family at this point and train for the
tournament she can't risk trying to get
into another fight this has compounded
further due to daniel refusing to get
along with johnny and think miyagido is
the only way sam then visits aisha to
seek advice possibly due to her being
friends with tori when they were both in
cobra kai the problem is that aisha
never tells sam to directly confront
tori and advise that she's in control
rather suggesting that sam tried to
start over with tory as originally they
got off on the wrong foot aisha recounts
that when someone tried to bully her she
struck first and showed them kindness
realizing that she could apply johnny's
lessons in different ways samus
interprets this and uses the advice to
try to put fear into tory the way she
did that to her completely going against
miyagido and to extend eagle fangs
principles more than likely because of
this and silver's lesson tori asks
rabbit a prom to purposely throw sam and
miguel off balance though this soon
changes as tori develops genuine
feelings for robbie at the after party
after presumably drinking beer sam is in
the role of the aggressor again by
mocking tori and kicking her when she's
off guard starting the fight and getting
the better of toria until miguel
intervenes this fight further compounds
the relationships between everyone and
sam still feels heartbroken by robbie
and miguel disagrees with her starting
the fight with tori and robbie it's not
until the tournament that things begin
to change where sam finally realizes she
can form her own way and use both
philosophies to find her balance while
tori realizes that she wants to win the
right way and not try to purposely
injure sam tori even begins to show
concern for sam when she accidentally
struck her in the eye verbally voicing
regret and even going so far to check on
sam when the final kick is delivered
let's talk about her arc this season
where she formed her own way and the
result of this training under both
senseis one of the great things about
this season is her finally directly
interacting with johnny and being taken
under his wing it's hinted early on
during dinner that johnny understands
what she's going through when her future
is being planned for her by her father
although they're off to a rocky start in
their initial one-on-one johnny inspires
sam to follow her own way by silly
talking about it and bringing it up in a
way that she can understand ironically
when sam gets what she wants as opposed
to robbie telling her she won't get what
she wants sam finally finds her wings
and begins to take flight this also
inspires johnny to take flight and
handle his own struggle in trying to be
with carmen sam even comes to terms with
her new teacher and addresses johnny as
sensei in a show of respect however as
mentioned before she starts to go to the
extreme by using this aggression to
heckle tory and purposely make her
jealous when kissing miguel another
subtle hint of her falling deeper into
the philosophy of eagle fang is her
rolling her eyes at mcgill's suggestion
to avoid fighting when he intervenes in
the potential rumble the conversation
she has with daniel before he fights
johnny is something to take note
particularly with the symbolism in the
scene both daniel and sam are trying to
come to terms with who they are as a
result of their interactions with johnny
daniel believes that because miyagi is
what kept him going down the wrong path
that's the only style that the students
should be using however sam is trying to
form her own way a lesson that daniel
learned from mr miyagi in karate kid
part 3 and sees advantages infusing the
two styles together more directly daniel
was hung over and left work early while
sam left school early in fact daniel was
ready to apologize to johnny and sam
even tried to help convince him to try
to make it work but he refused to do so
the scene is also parallel to season 3
where daniel taught sam not to give in
to fear though daniel fears that
johnny's influence is bad in this scene
and doesn't listen to sam's advice sam
wants to be able to use both styles so
the event that she faces tori she can be
prepared to fight her though daniel has
a point in this case just because she
has a pass with tori doesn't give sam
the excuse to now become the aggressor
when sam and miguel keeps score this is
also symbolic as miguel is slowly
becoming more miyagido-like and scores
for daniel while sam becomes more
eagle-thing-like and scores for johnny
sam even tries to reason with daniel one
last time while arguing with johnny that
they need to stand their ground and not
run but ultimately it becomes a
fruitless endeavor more of the
aggression comes out when dimitri tells
her to calm down while hitting the heavy
bag in an aggressive manner that we
haven't seen before as mentioned before
this also culminates in sam trying to
convince her parents not to let tory
back in a school prompting her to seek
out aisha and take her advice to one
extreme although her father doesn't
approve she realizes that she has to
make her own path and begins to train
with johnny and miguel johnny even shows
his approval when she tells him that she
wants to learn both styles at the prom
sam takes johnny's advice to the extreme
again when tory tells her she won't
listen to her demands and in the mirror
of the school fight this time is the one
striking first and about to lay a final
hit on torrey before miguel jumps in sam
also shows her jealousy when miguel and
tori have a moment together and has one
with robbie with history repeating
itself however because both mcgill and
sam are off balance they lose the fight
with tory and robbie some of this goes
onto a factor during the tournament as
she and miguel are not on speaking terms
but even during the qualifying matches
we see a bit of johnny's teachings
coming out as she goes through her
fights in her fight with piper part of
her anger rises through the surface
until she realizes she has to approach
the fight differently and begins the
fight with eagle fang throwing her
opponents off balance and putting them
on defense this leads to a conversation
with daniel that they both have
different right ways and she should be
the one to choose important to note as
this finally leaves him to have an
epiphany on how to coach his students
more notably in the fight between eli
and robbie this also leads to daniel
remembering the lesson from mr miyagi
and putting the past aside so he and
johnny can coach sam together with
approval from her father sam becomes
balanced and focused to confront tory
head on this allows her to not only go
on the offensive but to execute the
flying tornado kick with ease
potentially the strongest moving eagle
thing although taking two point losses
at first sam listens to both of her
senseis and achieves even more balance
to fuse the styles together what would
have landed a second point if the
referee had called the fight down the
middle and as i mentioned in my
collaboration video with ken sam hit
torrey before she went out of the ring
she went toe-to-toe with the offense and
would have tied the match regardless of
the setback sam fuses the two styles
together to score a point and when you
think about it it all again comes down
to balance but in a different way
miyagio always talks about balance
within oneself to be able to focus sam
was clearly out of balance most of the
season and not keeping her anger in
check but she manages to combine both
philosophies to move forward into
fighting the tournament forming her own
way of balance in an impressive exchange
she uses miyagido defense to match all
the strikes and it's implied if the
elbow strike didn't happen she would
have landed a hit on tori what's the
most interesting aspect about this is at
the end of the match sam displays
confusion at tori's concern for her
well-being this is important to note
that because the action shows sam that
perhaps her mom was right about tori and
wanted to put the rivalry behind her
it's also clear that this loss affects
sam deeply as she feels she let everyone
down and has to shoulder the blame for
miyagido and eagle fang leaving town
even when she gets home sam goes to her
room without saying a word showing how
devastated she is
here are my final thoughts on sam and
what we can expect from her in the
future in my opinion i actually like
sam's character arc for a few reasons
the first being that this was something
her character needed it's no secret that
sam is polarizing among the cobra kai
fanbase and i think it added more death
to her character sometimes characters
get stale without any kind of added
layers and i think compared to the first
two seasons season three and season four
gave her more death making their arc
that much more interesting the second
reason being that the rivalry between
her and tori in season three shifted
more towards good and evil rather than
grey and the role reversal between the
two was a nice touch team one of
miagido's top students almost succumbing
to the philosophy of pure aggression was
interesting to see one could argue that
this is what happened in robbie in
season three but the difference is that
sam was still in miyagido interacting
with fellow students while she was
integrating eagle things philosophy the
third reason that her arc parallels both
of her senseis sam being able to
distinguish when to use aggression
mirrors that of johnny's time in cobra
kai in the 80s this also reflects
daniel's growing pain's karate kid part
3 as both slowly become aggressive in
their respective arcs as time goes on
early on i'm glad sam at least tried to
make amends with robbie and she can't
blame him for how he felt at least she
admitted she was in the wrong for
hurting him and also you can say that
for all the characters involved that
they all have done that it'll be
interesting to see how the dynamic
between the four plays out in the future
i'm hoping in season five that we see
sam interact with johnny somehow to get
out of the funk she's currently in as
johnny would understand what it's like
to lose a big match situation and feel
like he let the team down chosen could
also be someone sam relates to as he had
his own falling out after a big match
situation and felt great shame if she
can dust herself off she would continue
to be a huge asset for miyagi fan going
forward i would also like to see the
rivalry between her and tori slowly
start to come to an end but i'm unsure
how likely it's going to happen in
season 5. it's clear that sam has
evolved as a fighter and i don't even
have to touch anymore on the fact that
if the referee did his job she would
have won i think she could benefit from
learning more offense from both chosen
and johnny and be the biggest threat
cobra kai has as far as female fighters
i also want to point out that even after
all of this i still don't think sam is a
bad person yes she definitely was more
petty this season but similar characters
like robbie hawke tori and miguel all
face similar arcs learning how much is
too much when it comes to using cobra
kai and try not to let it corrupt you
until then one can only speculate how
sam faces are lost going forward and
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below what's in store for sam in the
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