Let's begin by clarifying what I meant by the title. That is different from being unsure who to root for. To say that you root for person X over person Y means that while person X and person Y are competing, you want person X to succeed and, if their success occurs at the expense of person Y, you are okay with that. To say that you side with person X over person Y means that after the contest (whatever you call it) is over, you believe that person X is in the right and person Y is in the wrong. To say that you are unsure what you side are supposed to be on does not necessarily mean you are unsure whose side you are on. Maybe you know exactly whose side you are on, but you are not so sure what the end goal should be.

Since its premiere in 2018, the show Cobra Kai has been different from the movie anthropology to which it is a sequel in one notable way. The line between good and evil is a bit blurry. It may change, from one episode to the next, who you are rooting for. Sometimes, it is not even clear who/what you are supposed to be siding with or hoping for.

Here are 10 times Cobra Kai left us unsure what/whose side we are supposed to be on.

1. Daniel confronts Tom Cole.

When Tom Cole makes some snide remarks about Daniel in his commercial, Daniel goes and confronts Tom Cole.

Cole was pretty passive aggressive toward Daniel, saying that Daniel is not actually a karate guy. However, he also shows what looks like okay sportsmanship, when he offers Daniel a boba. Cole said that the Valley is big enough for two Auto Kings and Daniel seems to agree with that, even though he does not say it out loud. When Cole says “Are you sure I can’t get you a boba?” and Daniel assures Cole that he is fine, it seems as though they are about to act like gentlemen and both agree to compete in a friendly way. When Cole says “You must be full after eating all that dick,” Daniel kicks the drink out of Cole’s hand. Cole was exercising his right to freedom of speech when he made fun of Daniel in his commercial, but Daniel was also exercising his right to freedom of speech when he confronted Tom Cole.

This was one of those instances where it was obvious who we where supposed to be rooting for, but it was not clear what we where supposed to be rooting for. Daniel was clearly the good guy, we the audience are supposed to be hoping for Daniel’s success. If his success occurs at Cole’s expense, most of us would be okay with that. The mystery here is what exactly counts as success? Tom Cole making an ass of himself? Daniel getting more business? Them playing the dozens and Cole giving up first? There is no clear cut way to define what counts as a victory.

1. Arcade fight.

The Cobra Kais harass Chris at the arcade where he works. Chris contacts Sam to ask her for help. Sam and the Miyagi-Dos show up to defend Chris’ honour. All seems to be going well until Tory shows up, triggering Sam’s trauma from their previous fight. When Hawk launches a no mercy attack on Demetri and breaks his arm, Sam looks on with horror, frozen with fear and wishing that there was something she could do. Miyagi-Do loses the fight and Demetri is sent to the hospital.

There is a debate online about whether or not the Miyagi-Dos were justified in striking back against Cobra Kai in the way that they did. The people who say that Sam and the Miyagi-Dos crossed a line are not arguing that Cobra Kai was right for harassing Chris at his place of work. In fact, these people who make this argument would probably argue that the retaliation by Miyagi-Do is vastly more okay than what the Cobra Kais did to provoke them.

The people who feel that Miyagi-Do was in the wrong to pick a fight with Cobra Kai at the arcade are simply arguing that there where other ways for Chris to deal with the bullies that would not have required Sam to show up and pick a fight or for Demetri to get his arm broken. He could have told his boss what happened. Maybe Chris was worried his boss would wrongfully blame him. If Chris is worried about that; First of all, a boss who would blame Chris for Cobra Kai’s misdeeds would probably also blame Chris for the fight that ended with Demetri getting his arm broken. Second of all, if Chris’ boss would blame him for something that is clearly not his fault, then Chris can and probably should quit his job. Most experts agree that losing your job is not the end of the world. Chris could tell his boss and risk losing his job and that would solve the problem of being harassed at his place of work. However, Cobra Kai would still behave like complete Farquads and harass the other employees as well as the customers. Chris could have called security or the police. Hawk and Miguel are friends, Sam could have reached out to Miguel and told Miguel to try and talk some sense into Hawk.

It was pretty obvious that we the audience are supposed to root against Cobra Kai. We wish that Cobra Kai would be stopped at once. The question being debated here is whether or not Miyagi-Do is going about that goal the proper way.

1. Johnny and Daniel’s sparring match.

After Johnny and Daniel worked together to hunt Kreese down and seek retribution for the LaRusso home invasion, Daniel and Johnny agreed to work together. Despite initially having trouble doing that, they find common ground when the kids build a sparring deck. Daniel and Johnny agree to work together but separately. Daniel trains the Eagle-Fangs in the Miyagi-Do teachings and Johnny teaches the Miyagi-Dos how to be badass.

After Kreese and Silver show up to Miyagi-Do to strike fear into the hearts of Johnny and Daniel, Daniel and Johnny meet at a bar just the two of them, where Daniel insists that he take over the training, because that would be their best bet to win. That was a pretty fallacious assumption on Daniel’s part. All that said, Johnny was quite snooty with the way that he responded, insisting that if he and Daniel squared off ten times, Daniel would lose nine.

Daniel and Johnny both agreed to a sparring match where the winner would get to take over training. Despite Sam and Miguel trying to talk some sense into their respective senseis, Daniel and Johnny are both too damn stubborn. When the sparring match ended in a tie, it was paradoxically satisfying and unsatisfying at the same time.

I will admit that I sincerely believe Daniel is a better sensei ( https://www.reddit.com/r/cobrakai/comments/wkhv1g/johnny_lawrence_vs_daniel_larusso_who_is_the/ ) and it would work the benefit of the students if Daniel took over training. However, that is just my opinion. Even if you agree with me that Daniel is the better sensei (and I understand that not everyone does https://www.reddit.com/r/cobrakai/comments/tzjftq/proof_that_johnny_as_a_sensei_is_more_similar_to/ ) you must admit that Daniel was not completely in the right, he was simply less in the wrong than Johnny was.

When Daniel pleaded his case to Johnny as to why he should take over training, his main argument was that he could prepare the kids for victory. Johnny’s first student (Miguel) won the previous All Valley and the only student of Daniel’s ever to compete in an All Valley (Robby) was now working for Kreese and Silver. Of course winning is not everything, but the desire to win was Daniel’s reason for wanting to take over training. Johnny was using some very dangerous teaching methods, but if Johnny’s dangerous teaching methods are the reason why Daniel should be taking over the training, why didn’t Daniel bring that up when pleading his case to Johnny as to why he should take over training?

If Daniel where concerned about Johnny’s dangerous teaching methods, here is a crazy thought. Johnny and Daniel can take turns teaching the kids, they alternate who is the sensei on what day. Anytime that it is Johnny’s turn to teach, Daniel can and should be there to supervise and make sure that Johnny is not threatening the safety of the students. That would be best. The kids will still learn two styles of karate to have twice as many moves for the tournament and this will keep the kids safe. When Miyagi-Do and Eagle-Fang split up, that kept the Miyagi-Dos safe from Johnny’s teaching methods, but what about the Eagle-Fangs? Johnny was still unleashing his potential injury causing lessons on them and Daniel could have prevented that by staying partners with Johnny and insisting on supervising when Johnny taught.

1. Silver and Kreese each pick a fighter, six pack of brews to the winner.

In preparation for the impending All-Valley tournament, Silver and Kreese have the kids do an exercise. Each sensei has to pick one student. The students have a sparring match where there are no points, the first one to hit the mat loses.

Here we see Kreese has changed slightly. When he did the Coyote Creek exercise back in season 2, Kreese told his students that the people on the other team are your enemy. Here, Kreese teaches a lesson in exploiting your opponent’s weakness. He said opponent, not enemy. Clearly, Kreese is undergoing a change in mindset where someone can have a different goal than you without being your enemy. Who are we supposed to root for and why? Kreese or Silver?

1. Miguel vs Eli (2019 All Valley championships).

Eli and Miguel had both been behaving like model citizens all season ( https://www.reddit.com/r/cobrakai/comments/rus7ka/cobra_kai_season_4_character_development/ ).

At the 2019 All Valley tournament, Miguel and Eli square off in the semi finals. Despite being trained by different senseis, Eli and Miguel had a common enemy in Robby and another common enemy in Kyler. That is why there was a sense of comradery between them and we the audience were not sure which of them we wanted to see win. Miguel had already won a championship by that point, so it would be nice to give someone else a chance. On the other hand, this would be a great way for Miguel to prove that he has paddled back from his injury.

What do you think? Do you agree with my list? Where there any other times when the writers left us unsure who to root for?