#daniel defeated terry w the power of love. and also incredible violence <3< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[krytus]

the thing between terry & daniel is genuinely so insane and so terrifying because like. ok. w kreese & johnny, kreese does love johnny in his own horrible way, he thinks of him as his son, but its an unhealthy possessiveness. he loves johnny up and until the point where johnny fully and totally rejects him, then he has no problem killing him. but no one else can hurt him. johnny is his, to love and to kill.

but w daniel and terry its like. theres this terrifying notion that there's no end to their relationship. terry doesnt want anything from daniel, he's not kreese who at the end of the day, just wanted johnny to love him (the way he is, not the way johnny wants him to be). terry hurts daniel because he enjoys it, he terrorizes him out of sheer glee.

and its such a fascinating detail that terry, after getting roped back into the War, doesn't start to spiral until daniel tells him to fuck off and die. daniel doesn't accept his apology, doesn't believe for a second that it comes from a genuine place (in contrast w mike barnes!! who offers such a sincere and genuine apology, held back over the years just bc he was worried it wouldn't benefit daniel to hear it). bc daniel isn't the forgiving victim, after all these years. the trauma terry made him go through affects him so deeply he almost chokes on it.

and godd terry in s5 just wants the simple pleasure of hurting daniel. pain in every part of his body, fear in every corner of his mind. he wants daniel isolated, just like before, in agony with no one around to comfort him. he corners daniel and scares him, threatens him. keeps him on edge so that daniel will self sabotage. makes him an offer of peace that he knows daniel isn't going to take, just to torture him with it later. terry's a cat, and daniel is his mouse. he doesn't want to see him dead, he wants to play with him, meet daniel's feeble attempts at resistance. he wants to take away daniel's support, his friends and family. he lays a trap when he takes over topanga karate, hoping chozen will walk right into it (which he does, but still, chozen is too clever for terry to catch).

and god, isn't that just the most terrifying thing ever? there's this man who hates you, who wants to hurt you, humiliate you, a man with seemingly unlimited resources and most of all, the time and passion to destroy every aspect of your life. and there's nothing you can do to stop it.

in a way, its good that johnny and chozen (and mike) just said fuck the consequences, we're going after terry. its not a choice daniel would have been able to make, i think (even if they'd all been sober). he'd want to Beat Cobra Kai and hope that would also lead to the downfall of silver, but a direct attack? is something he cant even consider. and you can it see in that final fight. daniel is scared, obviously he's scared. but he's fighting for his family. and in that indirect way, he's fighting for himself. this is the only way to be saved, to stop silver for good.

because terry's tactics only work when daniel is scared of him. the minute daniel has support, he's able to stand up. look terry in the eye without fear. terry looks so human, flesh and blood, not the monster of his nightmares. and daniel? daniel can beat him. and he does.