Cobra Kai · A Viewer's Companion
Two men stuck in 1984 — and the tangled families their feud built.
Almost nobody in this show is related by blood — and yet it's all one family fight, because in the Valley karate is the bloodline: sensei to student, dashed line by dashed line. Green cards are Miyagi-Do (the LaRusso side), yellow cards are the Cobra Kai line — Johnny's blended household and the old guard who forged him — and red cards are the students, who change dojos the way other kids change electives.
Spoiler-safe mode is on: death markers, secret-reveal labels and finale outcomes are hidden on this chart and in the notes below. Use the “Spoilers” button in the top bar to show everything again.
Why the chart matters: four knots the show keeps pulling tighter
Every rivalry, every dojo war, every tournament bracket grows out of these tangles.
Two dads traded sons
Johnny's biological son Robby hates him — and gets trained by Daniel, partly out of spite. Meanwhile the kid next door, Miguel, becomes the son Johnny never had. Every season's best punch and worst heartbreak comes from this swap; the two dashed lines crossing in the middle of the chart are the whole series.
Cobra Kai's family tree has no blood in it
Kim Sun-Yung taught Kreese and Silver in Korea; Kreese taught Johnny; Johnny taught Miguel. “Strike first. Strike hard. No mercy.” is the family heirloom — and each generation has to decide how much of it to pass down, and how much to bury.
Miyagi died in 2011 — and never leaves
Mr. Miyagi is the show's north star: Daniel measures every choice against what his sensei would do. Then Season 6 opens Miyagi's old boxes — a hidden Sekai Taikai past, a fight that ended a life — and Daniel has to forgive his father figure for being human.
The kids change dojos like jerseys
Don't memorize who's in which dojo — it won't survive the next finale. Hawk defects to Cobra Kai and back; Robby joins Cobra Kai to wound his dad; Tory swings between Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do; Kenny goes from bullied to bully. That's why the students get their own color: the red cards are free agents.
The Sekai Taikai, settled in the Valley
The world tournament collapses in Barcelona and finishes at the All Valley arena: Miguel and Tory take the individual crowns, the team race ends in a first-ever tie, and Johnny wins a sensei tiebreaker against Sensei Wolf — Cobra Kai becomes the first American team to win it all, with the bad old name finally meaning something good. Kreese dies making sure Silver goes with him.
The name decoder
Same Valley, forty years of grudges, and several people who are easy to cross-wire. Keep these apart:
Johnny vs. Daniel
The blond burnout with the Firebird and the fridge of Coors = Johnny (William Zabka). The polished car dealer with a bonsai in every ad = Daniel (Ralph Macchio). In 1984 Daniel won the All Valley with a crane kick; Johnny never got over it. That's the show.
Robby vs. Miguel
Robby = Johnny's real son, trained by Daniel. Miguel = Carmen's son, trained by Johnny. Yes, it's backwards on purpose — each dad pours everything into the other one's kid.
Kreese vs. Silver vs. Kim Sun-Yung
Three generations of villain: Kim Sun-Yung = the master in Korea who taught the other two. Kreese = the Vietnam vet who founded Cobra Kai and can't let go of Johnny. Silver = his rich war buddy, the ponytailed billionaire who bankrolls everything and gaslights everyone.
The two Kims
Kim Sun-Yung (he, grandfather) = the root of “the way of the fist.” Kim Da-Eun (she, granddaughter) = the icy sensei who runs the Korean branch and brings it west. Family business, worst kind.
Sam vs. Tory
Sam = the LaRusso heir with the pool. Tory = the girl working two jobs to keep her family afloat. The scar on Sam's arm is from Tory's bracelet in the Season 2 school brawl. By Season 6 they're teammates — and Sam gives Tory her spot in the finals.
Eli vs. Hawk
Same kid. Eli Moskowitz, shy with a scarred lip, rebrands himself as “Hawk” with a mohawk and a back tattoo. Demetri is the best friend who knew him before the rebrand — and pays for saying so.
The two Lauras
Laura = Johnny's late mother, the one soft memory of his childhood. Laura Lawrence-Diaz = the baby girl Johnny and Carmen have in Season 6, named after her.
Miyagi-Do vs. Cobra Kai vs. Eagle Fang
Dojos, not families. Miyagi-Do = Daniel's revival of his sensei's karate. Cobra Kai = the dojo Johnny reboots — then loses to Kreese, who hands it to Silver. Eagle Fang = Johnny's zero-budget spin-off when the snake name stops being his. Same students cycle through all three.
Not on the tree — but always in the Valley
Chozen Toguchi
Daniel's old Okinawa enemy from 1985, now his houseguest, co-sensei and fiercest ally — and the man Kim Da-Eun softens for.
Kumiko
Daniel's Okinawa flame from the second movie. Her Season 3 visit — and Miyagi's letters she kept — send Daniel home changed.
Ali Mills
The 1984 girlfriend both men still argue about. Her Season 3 cameo does more peacemaking in two episodes than either man managed in thirty years.
Stingray (Raymond Porter)
A grown man desperate to belong to a teen karate dojo. The beating he takes for Silver — and the truth he finally tells about it — cracks Season 5 open.
Kyler Park
The original Season 1 bully — the reason Miguel first walked into Johnny's dojo. Keeps resurfacing with a new gi and the same smirk.
A note on the portraits: these are the characters as they appear on screen — stills from The Karate Kid wiki, cropped and served from this site so nothing hotlinks anywhere. Facts (fates, the Sekai Taikai results, who trained whom) are checked against the wiki, not memory. The chart covers the complete series — all six seasons of Cobra Kai, through the finale — so spoilers run all the way to the end.