From my perspective, Doug Rickenberger definitely wasn't the only one to quit Cobra Kai, although it's never learned why he did it.
I couldn't ever see the Cobra Kai dojo for what it truly was, as I'd been lost in a web of lies binding me to it. Hawk showed he was the one with strength of character and courage in the end. Back then, I didn't have the capacity to see what made him kick my fellow Cobra off to the side and then grab me around the neck while I'd been caught off guard before throwing me onto the glass table.
After recalling Hawk's pulling the Heel-Face Turn in mid-brawl during the LaRusso house fight (by imagining he was watching it from afar), Doug comes to a realization. Well, now I understand why he did what he did; he saw the ruthless individual he'd become and decided it was time for him to leave Cobra Kai for good.
Besides possibly feeling disillusioned with the dojo's harsh ideology, Doug also decided he'd finally had it with Cobra Kai's "no mercy" mindset. And that's a possibly good theory for what he'd tell Kyler Park and the other Cobras if they had decided to track him down and then ask him why he simply stopped coming to the Cobra Kai Dojo without telling them some time after the fight at the LaRusso house.
Also, in the Season 4 premiere Let's Begin, after Tory called Kyler and the Cobras pathetic and said they lost the house fight because Kyler didn't handle his own business, Kyler brushed her off while trying to pin the blame on Hawk for the house brawl going south because he switched sides in mid-battle. Tory reminded Kyler of his loss to Miguel, who'd been in a wheelchair a few weeks prior, to which Kyler angrily told her off with this superbly awesome gem: "You know what? At least I'm still here. Half the squad quit!"
This meant not only Doug, but also Mikey Miller and several other original members who had left Cobra Kai for good at some point after the house fight.
Basically, Kyler implied he was loyal to the dojo, but the same couldn't be said for Doug, Mikey and several other members, as they had been Put on a Bus (a la TV Tropes and Idioms).
Plus, there's the now former Cobras who thought it was time for a well-deserved change and decided to join either Miyagi-Do or Eagle Fang after they'd either been kicked out of Cobra Kai (like Bert and Mitch), left (like Miguel) or switched sides (like Chris, Nate, Abe, Frank, Little Red and then Hawk).
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CK & KK Ficlets and Non-Ficlets
Random🦅🥋🏆Mostly inspired by Tumblr prompts featuring Eli 'Hawk' Moskowitz, Demetri Alexopoulos, Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence, to name a few. Or, the AU KK/CK (and Jacob Bertrand) ficlet and non-fanfic collection I decided to write even though...
