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landslided · 5 months

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Honestly one of the things that fascinates me about Cobra Kai is how Daniel's perception of what Johnny thinks colors the way he reacts towards Johnny.

The way he greets him in the dealership makes it clear that he still thinks of Johnny as a kind of archetype. And obviously a lot of the show is about them getting past that and learning to know each other as adults, or is in the ideal version in my head, lol.

But I would like the moment when Daniel's perception flips and he sees Johnny in another light, with another label attached:

Bisexual, mentally ill sex worker with substance abuse problems and C-PTSD from being groomed as a child soldier in a cult.

i feel everyone on tumblr has decided to send me anons that appeal to me particularly because OUUUUGH anon, i am SUCH a fan of this.

i also love to explore daniel’s perception of johnny and by extension, himself through johnny because i think sometimes when daniel realizes that johnny isn’t the fully fledged villain or at least an archetype he has imagined in his head, he has to take a moment and shift his gaze onto himself.

we have a bit of a moment like this in S1Ep9 (different but the same my absolute beloved) when daniel learns that johnny’s dad wasn’t around and that laura married sid. you can see the gears shift in his head and think "oh… maybe there is more to this than i thought" and johnny has those same moments with speedwagon (which, is less deep than daniel’s realization but an important one of oh maybe we do have stuff in common that isn’t just our past).

i also think johnny in the show is more open to having his perception of daniel shifted because he does not have the same trauma attached to daniel. obviously, it’s pretty normal of daniel to be mistrustful of johnny because well, he was his high school bully who made his life hell, but i think there’s also a special brand of i can’t trust anyone and everybody is exactly how i see them philosophy that is a legacy of what terry silver has done to daniel. and when robby manages to make his way into daniel’s life and his trust and then is found out to have lied, daniel completely breaks down and has a reaction to robby (a kid) that feels just too much for the situation at hand.

also, if you, like me, love to read daniel as repressed in his sexuality (because hello guy from the 80´s and also once again, he was betrayed by silver and i don’t even mean this in a silverusso way but in a oh i can’t trust anyone with parts of myself because they could use it against me way) then there is a layer to daniel’s refusal to see johnny differently that is i think a way to protect himself and his own vision of himself and his desires.

i… love daniel larusso so much. he is such a complex mess of a character who believes himself to NOT be a mess and that’s what makes it so delicious to me.

but god, yes. bisexual, mentally ill sex worker johnny with substance abuse problems and C-PTSD, like, it’s not that far off from what he is in canon! we just put the actual words on it! (i could also go on a full tangent about sex worker johnny and the clues we have of that past in the show but i won’t here). i think if daniel ever learned about any of this in any capacity his brain would shut down for a least three to four business days before he tried to be aggressively supportive and johnny would find it unbearable. (i would like to see it)

#*asks

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