Cobra Kai (2018-2025)

Elise_51, Storyshark2005

"[...] The truth is that nobody gets over anything. And people use each other in all kinds of ways, whether they know it or not, and they fuck each other over to get what they want, and most of the time it doesn’t work. You use people, and they use you, and somebody always gets hurt. Being an adult means you ignore it. You stop thinking about it so you can keep going. That’s all it is.”
“So growing up means your heart dies. You kill it.”
“Or it kills you. One or the other, you pick.”

I want somebody to show me it’s possible to go through life without feeling like a coward, without lying to yourself until it sounds like the truth-- I want to know that it’s possible to be brave, to say you love somebody and mean it, to say what’s important and take it-- and keep it-- and not let it go at the first sign that it’s not exactly what the world expects from you.
“I want to know someone around here who can walk around with their chin up, and look their kids in the eye, and say ‘This is how you live. This is how you do it, and I’m not ashamed of it because this is my heart and this is who I am and this is the truth, and I don’t have to be afraid anymore.’ I want something real. I want to know there’s a point to all of this.”

[He] understood that sometimes being an adult means being unhappy by your own hand-- that sometimes you pick your own poison, that sometimes protecting your family means you stay away even if all you really want is to run and grab them and never let go. It meant knowing they were better off without you.

People talked about true love like it was this freeing thing, but it’s almost the opposite of liberation, because he knows there is nothing he can do about it. He’s a slave to feeling.
[...] loving Johnny didn’t feel anything close to optional. He just does. It’s so intense, it’s almost painful for Daniel to even look at him for very long, because all he can think about is how much time they wasted.

poetdameron

“Just remember. Picture what you want it to look like, then just do it. Don’t think of how, don’t think of what if, just do it.”

[...] he hoped Daniel’s astonished face wasn’t the last he’ll see of him. He hoped it was the same epiphany Johnny was having.
That earthy colors were Daniel’s as was the smell of rain and everything alive, like all he had brought into his life by caring and being kind to him when, in reality, he never had to—that he had brought back the one good thing Johnny ever did: his son that smiled at him when he thought it a lost case a long time ago.

Johnny leaned down, closing his eyes as his lips touched Daniel’s.
He was warm, all of him was always the warmest presence and color in the room. It made him gravitate towards him ever since they were young and had tried to ruin each other, but now all he wanted was him and his time, his every midnights and storms.

Their coming of age had come and gone, the Summer had ended, and every corner was finally clean. After the heat and the rain, it was all finally clean and free of dust.

menocchio

Daniel wonders what that must be like, to go through the world and think there were never any consequences for one's actions. Or maybe it was something else? You shove the world because when the world shoves back, it's confirmation you can influence it, have control.

“You're the most,” and Johnny presses sucking sore kisses down his neck, “ridiculous fucking—”
“Me? I'm not the weirdo who suddenly wants to pretend like I don't exist.”
Johnny draws back and stares down at him with wild eyes. It's a lot less gratifying than the kissing.
“We're supposed to ignore each other,” he says in a furious whisper-shout. “That's what you said last week!”
“Well – okay, yeah. But you didn't have be so good at it,” says Daniel, and Johnny looks like he's about to kill him.

[...] you don't water a tree with poison and expect it to thrive – the means and the ends are inseparable, Daniel read that in one of his books. And peace comes after war, like peace came for Mr. Miyagi – but what if it's a broken peace, full of grief and mistrust? Daniel believes the man chose as best he could, after his first choice was taken from him.