re: Cobra Kai Season 2 (Spoiler Version)

This was a theory I had regarding Robbie and Tory.

Robbie is the yin to Tori's yang

The principle of Yin and Yang is that all things exist as inseparable and contradictory opposites, for example, female-male, dark-light and old-young.

Let's start by saying both come from very similar backgrounds. Broken homes. Petty crime. Etc.

- Robbie is trying to become a better person. We see him as a criminal in the very beginning of season 1. He makes major strides towards becoming a balanced individual that protects others. Tory is content with the status quo of her personality and even willing to sink to lower depths. We see her go from a knucklehead hooligan stealing some booze to becoming one of Kreese' prize students and a criminal.

- Where Tory is more "what you see is what you get" in her interactions with Sam, Robbie is the one who is dishonest with Sam and making moves from the shadows.

- Tory's rival Sam is disrespectful towards her and willing to go the extra mile and do whatever it takes to humiliate her in public. Robbie's rival is entirely respectful towards him this entire season, up to the point he gives the medal to him and trusts him to relay the message to Sam.

- Tory shows Sam the spiked knucks before she starts trying to use them on her. This is important as she's showing her character is still honorable enough to need to beat her 1v1 straight up any means necessary and lets her know the stakes. Robbie completely throws honor out the window after attacking Miguel from behind after Miguel clearly let up on purpose.

- Where Tory was trying to intentionally maim or even kill Sam, she fails. Robbie was not trying to maim or kill Miguel, but does so anyways.

Where you see one character hitting stumbling blocks on their way to maturity throughout the show, you still see the upward trajectory of Robbie's character as a good person. The contrast is that Tory is given those same stumbling blocks and instead of persevering, she let's those stumbling blocks take her even further into the depths of being a bad person.