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[strongroots]

OOC INFORMATION.

NAME: Ree

CONTACT: private message this journal!

AGE: 30+

OTHER CHARACTERS: N/A

IC INFORMATION.

BASICS

CHARACTER NAME: Robby Keene

CANON: Cobra Kai

CANON POINT: Season 5, episode 5: Extreme Measures, after Robby's fight with Miguel and Daniel's confrontation with Silver.

AGE: 17

BACKGROUND

HISTORY: Link!

PERSONALITY:

What are your character’s fears? How do they hinder or challenge your character?

Fear has been a factor for most of Robby's life. Growing up with a mother suffering substance abuse and an absent dad who still lived in the same city, internally, Robby's never had a great opinion of himself, or where he'll end up. He didn't make steps to be different: his mother's growing absence made Robby rebel against school-life or taking a cleaner life, getting into petty thieving as a means of making money in a household that barely made rent every month. He's smart, knows how to charm his way suitably well around people, and does have the brains to lie for a role or to put in the extra effort when he wants. But Robby's fear and anger leads him to take paths that go against who he wants to be, and makes him who he thinks he should be, without positive influence.

Because Robby has lacked a positive role model in his life until he meets Daniel LaRusso, a man who was meant to be a means of getting back at his dad--and then who turns into someone who offers him genuine empathy, offers his time, and teaches him karate. It still takes Robby a while to believe he can go to the man about anything despite showing an immense loyalty to him and his dojo (to the point of not asking for help while living without food or electricity). Even when he disowns Robby (for a second time), Robby believes in him until a point that leads to his arrest, aided by Daniel: because he believes that Daniel was deceiving him, and saw Robby as Robby sees himself.

Like his dad: a failure. He tries to become someone better, which means pushing people out, becoming stronger by whatever means necessary, but ultimately fails in the instance he succeeds. Deep down, Robby Keene is someone who wants to be a good person worthy of trust, and not to be forgotten.

What are some of your character's regrets? How is your character impacted by them?

We see two major regrets Robby goes through in canon: when he kicks another teen, Miguel, over a second floor railing, and in his inability to be a proper mentor to a younger karate student, Kenny, who ends up becoming more hostile and a bully as a result. The ways in which Robby deals with these issues isn't the best--he tries to back out of them, to wash his hands of the problem in different ways.

For the first event, which was an accident, he runs from the scene, and then later feels that he has no one in his corner when his father fails to connect with him, and blames him for the incident than acknowledging what led to it. In the second example, Robby becomes distraught when he sees how far the student under his guidance has turned cruel, but also becomes frustrated when his attempts to get Kenny out of the environment fostering his anger goes sideways, and when he also fails to get his then-girlfriend to denounce the dojo too. Instead of perceiving, he decides to let them do what they want.

The two are interconnected, in that Robby adopts a self-interested and spiteful character under the teachings of the dojo, Cobra Kai, that he meets Kenny in. This environment--as well as his anger and feelings of isolation from having those he once cared about in his corner--lead to Robby taunting Miguel about their fight, despite this accident sending Miguel to the hospital in a coma. His self-pitying over Miguel's accident is encouraged, and the ways he feels he was wronged.

Still, despite this person he tries to be, Robby can't reject Kenny's original plea for help when he finds out how badly he's being bullied, though he ignores the unhealthy environment he's welcoming him into that promotes a No Mercy rhetoric to problems, and people. Maybe he can help him despite it. Show him the right way.

It's fair to say that under stress and without a good support system around him, Robby is likely to try and run from his problems. Though he is trying to do better, especially for other people.

What are your character’s ambitions/goals? Why are they important to your character?

For most of the time we see Robby Keene, his goals are to be a better person. While there's a spite and pettiness that comes from Robby initially learning karate due to history between his father and sensei, he finds in its teaching--and in his sensei's person, too--a means of feeling better as a person: finding a sense of calm and balance in his otherwise unstable life, and being part of a community in the form of he's a part of, originally.

Though this doesn't last when he ends up abruptly leaving his first dojo, when he joins a new one, Robby's goal is--though it might be misguided--to try and be a better person still, if from the position of someone hurt and angry at the people he previously trusted. He's willing to ignore certain bullying with the belief that he's only there to help himself, though he's recognised by now that he's unable to be happy with himself if he tries ignoring his own principles.

Now, he wants to fix the mistakes he's made, and put himself back on the right path: to be happy with himself, and to feel like someone capable, and who doesn't need to push others away.

INVENTORY: Nothing emotionally important. A skateboard would be cool, but otherwise, just his cellphone and cordless headphones.

POWERS

SKILLS/ABILITIES: Due to being a very normal TV human being, Robby's skills come down to his skill in karate, and also having a minimum skill around electronics and breaking locks. This isn't anything amazing--he was a petty thief and has a base knowledge of camera set-ups and how to break locks.

NERFING: N/A.

WEAKNESSES: N/A.

SAMPLES.

w/ The Disreputable Dog

w/ Peter Graham

w/ Tessa Gray