#and he was being victim blamed the whole time Kreese came back to cobra kai

[baldwinboy5ive]

Holy fuck, Daniel-san, Johnny Lawrence the worst of them all REALLY

and a MONSTER?

I’M SORRY

DID YOU REPRESS EVERY SINGLE MEMORY YOU EVER HAD OF PONYTAIL MAN BECAUSE I WON’T BLAME YOU IF YOU DID 

... is what I said the first time I ever watched these scenes. I was kind of joking, but then, the more I thought about it, what if I wasn’t joking? And then a whole AU spun out of my control about what if Daniel-san really did repress all of his Terry Silver memories?

It'd make for such a dark turn, and would be such a wild way to do it. Daniel is so angry at Cobra Kai, and specifically at Johnny, but what if he's so angry at Johnny without fully understanding why he's so mad? And that's why he keeps lashing out at Johnny. 

And Johnny does eventually show his true colors, which is that he really isn't such a bad guy - yeah, he definitely was a total dick to Daniel in high school, and sometimes they definitely went too far, but it wasn't like the kind of psychological abuse that Terry Silver did. 

Also, in the bit where the committee digs up the old ban by the '85 committee, and say that it was due to the actions of John Kreese, Terry Silver, and Mike Barnes, this does sound familiar to Daniel, of course. He remembers Kreese, all right. And he remembers fighting Mike Barnes. He doesn't know who this Terry Silver dude is, but just assumes that either he was hired on to help train Mike Barnes, or maybe he was just another Cobra Kai student who fought unethically in the tournament, but was a fighter he never faced. (But that's not important, he thinks.) All he really knows is that when the committee is bringing up the '85 tournament, he just feels this rage towards Cobra Kai, and thinks... well, it must be because of Johnny. 

Similarly, when he first saw Johnny at the dealership, he's really happy to see him! Well, because he likes Johnny... because I severely ship it, okay... but yeah, he does feel like he likes Johnny, but then later when he finds out Johnny is reopening Cobra Kai, he again feels that rage about it, and then confusion, because why was he so happy to see Johnny earlier if he's so bad, and did such bad things to him? And thing is - yeah, he DID do bad things, but like - !!! "Kids being stupid" bad, not "psychological abuse and driving you apart from your beloved mentor" bad! 

But... Daniel feels the second one, without knowing why it's such intense rage and anger and hurt. 

I'm also imagining that someone who's heard all the Johnny stories (because seriously, these two just tell everybody about each other hahahha) being like, "Geez Daniel calm down, it was a hill, not a cliff, and okay so he beat your ass a few times, but you fought back! And didn't it basically resolve when he handed you the trophy? Why are you still hung up about it?" (OKAY SO Johnny never apologized BUT ANYWAY.) 

And Daniel thinks - well okay, when you say it in WORDS like that, sure, okay, it doesn't sound like it was really that bad! But then... if it "wasn't that bad," then why does he hurt so much, and why does it make him feel so guilty about how he acted towards Mr. Miyagi...? 

Part of this whole thing unraveling could involve Johnny even learning about what Terry Silver did, when Daniel finally does remember, and this whole story comes out. Johnny might eventually have to come to terms with what he did to Daniel in high school. He could finally apologize, say he never really meant anything by it, he had his own anger issues that he was working through, and so on. He might even eventually accept that it isn't some kind of "weakness" to have been manipulated by Kreese - because Daniel wasn't "weak" for being manipulated and victimized by Silver, was he? 

And at the same, he has to admit that the sort of sob story he told Miguel wasn't the whole truth, he wasn't just the victim because Daniel came in and stole his girl, he really did do mean stuff to Daniel, too! Then Daniel, too, might even have to scale back a little and apologize - oh man, how the turns really will table, when he has to admit that Johnny, while still bad, wasn't as bad as a "monster," and obviously is no Ponytail Man hahahaha. Maybe he'd have to apologize for overreacting, like with the rent raising, calling him out so hard during the committee meeting, and the like, because once all of his Terry Silver memories come flooding back, he realizes that he actually put the BLAME on Johnny for all of the anger and hurt he felt about Cobra Kai. Johnny had to take the blame for it... because there was a monster, and Daniel just couldn’t remember him. 

Man, also - I talked to @idontknowkaratebutiknowcrazy​ (which is what gave me the courage to even post this at all haha so THANK YOU) who pointed to these lines from Daniel: 

Such a good moment. 

What if this moment showed his true feelings about Johnny, without any of the Terry Silver memories tarnishing those feelings, a rare moment where he could actually see Johnny for who he really is? Perhaps it was because his head was clearer in that moment, needing to be strong for Robby. And if those really are his true feelings about Johnny, then HAHAHA that's my way in for LawRusso I guess, that’s my way in and I’LL TAKE IT.

Anyway. All these thoughts just came to me out of nowhere, and wouldn't go away, so I had to write this whole thought experiment out. 

#cobra kai #daniel larusso #terry silver #johnny lawrence #long post #VERY LONG POST SORRY #the karate kid #the karate kid 3