Piper Elswith is a minor character in Season 2 and a major antagonist in Season 4 of the YouTube Red/Netflix series, Cobra Kai. She is Moon's former girlfriend and star athlete of West Valley High School's gymnastics team, before joining Cobra Kai in order to help them win the All-Valley Karate Tournament.
She is portrayed by Selah Austria.
Biography[]
Season 2[]
Piper is shown walking into Moon's living room at Moon's 'end of summer break' party when Hawk takes notice of her. Hawk then takes a liking to Piper as she takes a liking to his unforgettable hairdo and they form a brief bond. Hawk tries to introduce himself to her, but his own ex-girlfriend Moon interrupts and shares a welcoming kiss with Piper, which breaks his heart. The pair then make-out together by the fireplace, adding more to the sulking Hawk's envy.
Season 4[]
Sometime later, Piper and Moon eventually broke off their same-sex relationship because they didn't hit it off chemistry-wise as soul mates, but still remain on good terms. Piper also joined the gymnastics team of West Valley High School. During her training sessions with them, Miguel Diaz and Johnny Lawrence approached her and gave her the offer to join Eagle Fang Karate, as the All Valley committee had made changes for the tournament that girls would compete in separate divisions. Although she considered the offer, she and her teammates joined Cobra Kai instead after receiving brand new training merchandise from the dojo, and would later post a video of herself at the dojo joining them; this infuriated Johnny Lawrence and prompted him to recruit Devon Lee for Eagle Fang instead.
After joining Cobra Kai, Piper Elswith began training with the rest of the students in preparation for the All Valley. During a one-on one training exercise (where both students are handpicked to fight and spar with one another), she is selected by Silver to square off against Tory Nichols, who was handpicked by John Kreese. Their sparing session lasted for a few seconds as Tory was able to defeat Piper easily. Defeated, Piper suggested to her that they should do that some other time, though Tory scoffed her off. She later participated at the West Valley Junior Prom.
Piper would later participate in the All Valley Karate Tournament along with the rest of Cobra Kai. During the skills competition, she assisted Cobra Kai rookie Kenny Payne with the board breaking. She then entered the girls division of the tournament where she was able to face Samantha LaRusso in the quarterfinals. Piper was able to land the first point against Sam at the first half. She began to taunt Sam that she heard from Robby Keene that Miyagi-Do was for "defense only", and she is worth nothing if she doesn't have it. Despite this, Sam was able to counter her moves and use more offensive attacks, and was able to defeat Piper with ease by landing her on the ground and punching her. This disqualifies Piper, and Samantha was able to move on to the semifinals, where she is able to face off against a Topanga Karate student. Although she lost, Cobra Kai was still able to win the tournament overall when Tory Nichols defeated Samantha LaRusso in the finals. During her victory, she and her teammates congratulated Tory as they escorted her off the mat. She then celebrated outside with Kyler Park as he decided to schedule a victory party at his house. Unbeknownst to her, the referee was bribed by Terry Silver to help Cobra Kai win.
Season 5[]
Piper was shown in an advertisement of Cobra Kai in the first episode and as an Instagramer on Sam's phone in the fifth episode. She is not seen again and it is unknown if she is still a part of the dojo.
Relationships[]
Friends/Allies[]
- Moon (ex-girlfriend)
- Cobra Kai students - Former Teammates
- Tory Nichols
- Robby Keene
- Kyler Park
- Kenny Payne
- Edwin
- Big Red
- Charlotte
- Lindsey
- Cobra Kai senseis
- John Kreese † - Former Sensei
- Terry Silver † - Former Sensei
Trivia[]
- Piper was created as a reminder to the fans of The Karate Kid trilogy on the real life fact that getting a girlfriend in the 21st-century is not as easy and simple as how it was in the 20th-century, due to how most thoughts and actions of women are likely to be more homo-erotic/sexual than men.
- She is the only lesbian character to be in Cobra Kai, known for being in a very short relationship with the bisexual Moon and briefly started hitting on the heterosexual Tory Nichols.
- Why she didn’t appear in the fifth season was not shown on-screen (although one of the creators of Cobra Kai was asked this and posted an answer on X (formerly Twitter), where he replied the writers explained Piper’s absence in the fifth season by saying she was at gymnastics camp for the summer). However, given how Terry Silver was exposed and eventually arrested, it is also unlikely if she’ll ever join Miyagi-Do following the end of the season.
- It is also never revealed if Moon and Piper continued to be friends when she joined Cobra Kai.
