In Cobra Kai season 2, Samantha LaRusso (Mary Mouser) got her own arch-enemy, Tory Nichols (Peyton List), which echos her father Daniel's (Ralph Macchio) experience with Chozen Toguchi (Yuki Okumoto) in The Karate Kid Part II. It's tempting to equate Cobra Kai's Sam vs. Tory rivalry with Daniel vs. Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka). There are certainly parallels: just like the owners of the Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do dojos, Sam and Tory are both in high school and they romantically competed over Miguel Diaz (Xolo Mariduena) the way Daniel and Johnny did over Ali Mills (Elisabeth Shue). But the escalation of violence in Cobra Kai season 2 turns Tory much more into Sam's version of Chozen than Johnny Lawrence.
Daniel and Johnny had some violent altercations before they faced each other for the 1984 All Valley Under 18 Karate Championship, but what Daniel had to deal with in The Karate Kid Part II when he joined his sensei, Mr. Miyagi (Noriyuki "Pat" Morita), on a trip to Okinawa was much worse than being bullied in high school. Miyagi returned home to find that his best friend Sato Toguchi (Danny Kamekona) still harbored a decades-old grudge and wanted to fight Miyagi to the death. Meanwhile, Chozen, who was Sato's nephew and top karate student, instantly took a dislike to Daniel, which quickly turned violent. Daniel and Chozen butted heads regularly and LaRusso exposed how Chozen cheated the people of Tomi Village. After Chozen was disgraced for refusing to help Daniel rescue a young girl during a typhoon, Chozen misguidedly decided the only way to regain his honor was to fight Daniel to the death at the O-bon festival - a fight Daniel ultimately won, cementing Chozen's dishonor.
Sam and Tory's animosity burned white-hot just as quickly as Daniel and Chozen's. The two girls instantly disliked each other when they met at a beach club but when Sam accused Tory of stealing her mother Amanda's (Courtney Henggeler) wallet, Nichols became furious and humiliated LaRusso by sending her into a table full of food. They were enemies from then on, which was exacerbated by Tory dating Miguel, who is Sam's ex (and who still also pines for LaRusso). Sam and Tory had another altercation while Nichols was working at a roller rink, and then Sam beat Tory at a drinking contest during an end-of-summer party. But when Tory caught Miguel kissing Sam at the party, she became hellbent on revenge and Tory escalated her issue with Sam to the point where all of the students of Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai got involved and their violence engulfed the entire school.
Cobra Kai season 2's ending brawl at West Valley High started because Tory wanted to fight Sam - and she even announced her intention over the school's loudspeaker. But this was no controlled tournament fight to settle their differences and Tory wasn't playing by any rules. Their feud turned shockingly violent and extreme; for all intents and purposes, Nichols was out to seriously injure LaRusso in front of the entire school, and she brought a spiked bracelet to do the job. It's even possible that Tory was going to kill Sam, just like Chozen outright intended to murder Daniel in public back in 1985.
Of course, both LaRussos ultimately won their fights and saved their own lives; Chozen and Tory's attempts to regain their lost "honor" were foiled. But while it's not clear what happened to Chozen afterward (although he is rumored to appear in Cobra Kai season 3), Tory apparently suffered no repercussions for attacking Sam, creating chaos at the school, and inadvertently causing Miguel to be critically injured. Instead, Nichols merely took her place in John Kreese's (Martin Kove) Cobra Kai, and her issue with Samantha isn't over by any means.
While Sam is more even-tempered and is, frankly, a better karate kid at her age than Daniel was, she definitely shares her father's willingness to push back against her enemies. Interestingly, because she was jealous that Aisha (Nichole Brown) was hanging with Tory, it was LaRusso who sparked their rivalry since Sam accused Nichols of being a thief before there was even a love triangle with Miguel. But Tory's ultimate desire to hurt Sam ramped up her hatred to another level. Just as The Karate Kid Part II changed the rules of the movies to be about life-and-death, Cobra Kai season 2 drastically escalated the violence of the series as Sam LaRusso got her own Chozen - an enemy who potentially wants her dead - in Tory Nichols.