Fighters of the Hellmouth [BtvS/Cobra Kai]

TBH is scary how similar Robby and Xander backgrounds are. The only real difference is that one of Robby's finally pulled his head out of his ass.

Sadly in a Hellmouth the chances of that happening to either of Xander parents are.

Faralis said:

TBH is scary how similar Robby and Xander backgrounds are. The only real difference is that one of Robby's finally pulled his head out of his ass.

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Yeah. On the show Johnny did that because he ran into a neighbor kid in trouble called Miguel. Amusingly, it was a sort of Mr. Miyagi situation - Johnny ran into Miguel getting beaten on by a gang of bullies from school, drunkenly went in there to break it up, and had a hero-worshipping kid following him around forever after. Johnny finally succumbed to the temptation to start teaching him, that branched out into restarting the school, and actually being needed by someone and doing something he knew how to do helped Johnny start pulling out of his spiral. Robby's role in this was to be Miguel's jealous and resentful rival, as his dad was finally cleaning up his act and becoming a mentor again... for a kid who wasn't him. It would take quite a few more seasons before that finally resolved positively, with Robby turning the corner from delinquent to good kid and him and Miguel becoming bros. (Amusingly literally, as Johnny got into a relationship with Miguel's single mother as the show progressed, and eventually married her in late season 6, thus actually making Robby and Miguel brothers.)

Also, in the show Tory has no deep pseudo-parental bond with Johnny... at first it was with Kreese (which is why she was by far the most troubled of the younger generation on the show in early seasons) and later on with Mrs. LaRusso.

As this was a limited crossover port with only the three members of the CK cast you've seen, obviously Miguel, his mom, the LaRussos, etc, didn't exist here and so Johnny, Robby, and Tory followed broadly the same path but by other means. Because I honestly believe Johnny would have done the same pullout for Robby... if he'd known that his kid needed him, which for a long while he didn't. Likewise, Tory would probably have had a lot smoother road if she'd initially learned Cobra Kai from Johnny and not Kreese, but.

Faralis said:

Sadly in a Hellmouth the chances of that happening to either of Xander parents are.

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Yeah. Particularly as neither of Robby's parents ever laid a hand on him, even at their worst, while Xander's parents...

As somebody pointed out (I forget if it was in this thread or SB's), Johnny's first reaction when he finds out is to probably go on over and try to encourage Xander's parents to recover... but when he finds out about the abuse part, his next reaction is gonna be to bounce Mr. Harris off the wall. ('Screw it, kid, you're eighteen, you don't have to stay here.')