- "I want it more than anything else -- I mean it's all I think about."
- ―Raymond to Terry Silver[src]
Raymond "Stingray" Porter is a recurring character in Cobra Kai. He is portrayed by Paul Walter Hauser.
He serves as a supporting character in Season 2-6, a mentioned character in Season 3, and a anti-hero in Season 5.
Raymond is an immature man-child who took interest in martial arts and expressing his desire to be part of the Cobra Kai Dojo to fulfill his childhood dream to escape the responsibilities of adulthood. But his time in the dojo would land him in legal trouble following the fight at West Valley High School, resulting in his arrest and probation. After serving his probation, John Kreese bans him from returning to the dojo.
In an attempt to appeal for reinstatement in the dojo, Raymond is beaten to near-death by Terry Silver, who offers him a spot in Cobra Kai under the condition of naming Kreese as his assailant, resulting in Kreese's arrest and Silver usurping the dojo from him.
Weeks later, Raymond is persuaded by Bert, Miguel, Sam, Eli and Demetri into making things right by exposing Silver as the fraud that he is. Realizing his mistake, Raymond redeems himself by giving Daniel, Amanda LaRusso and Carmen Diaz a ride to the Cobra Kai Dojo in Encino, beating some Cobra Kai students standing in their way and admitting the truth about his near-fatal assault to the authorities, allowing Silver to be taken into custody. However, Raymond's poor credibility enables Silver's lawyer to drop all charges against the sensei, with Raymond adding insult to injury by asking his good friend Bert to testify in his favor.
In Season 6 Part 3, Stingray finds a new job working under Johnny Lawrence as the beginner lesson Sensei at Cobra Kai, finally fulfilling his dream of rejoining Cobra Kai.
Biography
Raymond said he lives with his mother (who is implied to be fed up, fatigued and infuriated at his juvenile behavior and his refusal to grow up). He seems to have stood up to his mother's authority to some extent, finally deciding to enroll in a dojo against her wishes (both at its frivolousness and how ridiculous he looks compared to the much younger students).
It is unknown what happened to his father. Where the exact location of his father is or whether his father is alive or not is unknown.
Cobra Kai
Season 2
Raymond is an employee of a hardware store where Johnny, Daniel and Robby come to buy tools. He is a fan of LaRusso Auto, karate and 80's heavy metal bands like Metallica. After witnessing the Cobra Kai demonstration at Valley Fest, he becomes enamored with the dojo and views it as a chance to achieve a childhood dream. He tries to challenge Miguel Diaz, only for a new teenage girl, Tory, to spar with him instead.
He joins Cobra Kai and adopts John Kreese's ruthless teachings and exuberant mannerisms. He wins the Coyote Creek training exercise by lying in wait and attacking when everyone else believes the game is over.
Stingray is one of the many Cobra Kai Students who appear at Moon's party, as he attends with his friends and girlfriend, Fawn; he encourages a fight between the Miyagi-Do's and Cobra Kai's until the police arrive and break up the party.
Stingray decides to quit his job to work as a security guard for the high school, but is nearly turned down for lack of experience and competence. He attempts to demonstrate his competency to the principal by defeating several members of Miyagi-Do Karate, though his bias and willingness to harm children isn't appealing to the staff.
Following the school brawl, he joins Hawk, Tory, Mitch and other Cobra Kai students as they turn against Johnny and embrace a new loyalty to Kreese.
Season 3
Stingray is not seen after the fight, but is mentioned during a PTA meeting, when of the parents asks about Raymond and his position with the school. Principal Lopez clarifies Stingray was never employed in any capacity at West Valley High School. Raymond was arrested for his role in the brawl and sentenced to probation, as well as bound to a restraining order forbidding him to have contact with minors. As a result, Raymond was forced to relinquish his membership at Cobra Kai, and was also kicked out of his mother's house after she became fed up with his antics.
Season 4
After being kicked out by his mother, Raymond's sister agrees to let him stay at her house while she is out of town. He argues with his neighbor, Greg Hughes, over playing metal music too loud the night before. During this time, he is once again a free man as the restraining order has expired and his probation has been served, evidently not doing anything to violate either one.
However, Raymond shows he’s unaware of what’s happened since the school brawl when he enters the Dojo expecting to be welcomed back with open arms (showing he hasn’t learned from the incident despite being arrested, being on probation and being kicked out of his mother’s house). Since the dojo is now fully under Kreese’s control, Raymond approaches Kreese, saying he requires no thanks for “taking one for the team.” But Kreese cruelly and vehemently says he was never a part of the team — a statement that visibly shakes Raymond, who meekly responds, “But, Sensei, I’m... one of the guys” (showing his lack of self-esteem). Kreese then cruelly calls Raymond a buffoon, a disgrace and an embarrassment, and says he has no value in the dojo or anywhere. Devastated and clearly on the verge of tears, Raymond struggles to hold himself together, telling himself, “It’s a test I won’t fail you, Sensei” before he turns and leaves the dojo in misery.
Refusing to give up and finally face the harsh realities of adulthood, as well as desperately wanting to be with his former friends, Raymond visits the West Valley High School junior prom; he finds Bert and asks him how to re-join Cobra Kai. However, Bert replies that he's not in Cobra Kai anymore (much to Raymond's surprise). When Raymond asks if it's true the original afterparty got canceled, Bert admits it's true. Raymond tells Bert not to worry, as he will host their afterparty at his sister's house.
Word spreads, and his party is very well attended by the students. When Greg tries to shut down the party, Stingray knocks him out, causing all the partygoers to cheer and chant his name in jubilation. Outside, Miguel and Sam fight against Tory and Robby. When Sam, Tory and Miguel are pushed by Robby into the swimming pool, Stingray then appears. Under the impression that this is part of the festivities, he does a cannon ball into the pool with them, and is joined by other partygoers.
Stingray returns to the Cobra Kai Dojo to ask Terry Silver, instead of Kreese, if he can join Cobra Kai. Silver, heavily intoxicated and on a downward spiral, brutally attacks the lesser student. After delivering a beating, Silver promises to make him a student if Stingray does something for him first. He delivers a powerful blow to the head that renders Stingray unconscious. Stingray wakes up in the hospital and names his assailant as John Kreese. By lying about his attacker, he secures a spot in Cobra Kai. Meanwhile, Kreese's arrest allows Terry Silver to take over Cobra Kai. Disgusted with himself, Raymond bursts into tears, but is too desperate for the place that made him feel young again.
Season 5
After making a full recovery, Raymond has been enjoying his new apartment, television and PlayStation that he had acquired through Silver's money. As one more gift, Silver gives him Johnny Lawrence's Cobra Kai themed 2009 Dodge Challenger which also contained a gi with his nickname, "Stingray." However, he is clearly uncomfortable being around Silver and Cobra Kai. Raymond is tracked down by Daniel and his ally Chozen Toguchi, who confront him over lying to the cops about Kreese assaulting him when it was actually Silver, who manipulated Raymond into cooperating with him. Stingray tries to deny everything and when he remarks that Daniel must have done something to deserve Silver torturing him and his family, LaRusso loses his temper and becomes aggressive, only for him to be taken away by Chozen.
Upon realizing that Silver had bribed the referee to ensure Cobra Kai's victory in the All-Valley Tournament and he had framed Kreese for Stingray's vicious assault, Bert, Demetri, Miguel, Eli, and Samantha track Stingray down and beg him to tell the truth. Just like with Daniel and Chozen, Stingray keeps playing dumb but he ultimately confesses through a Dungeons & Dragons scenario about Silver's plan to usurp Kreese's position as the sensei of Cobra Kai. He admits he just wanted to be a proud, honorable warrior like them (Though in reality he wanted to simulate their youth, popularity and young age). Samantha assumes Stingray just does not want to lose everything he had gained from Silver, but the man confesses his fear that Silver could easily kill him if he snitched on him.
However, his conscience makes him decide to come clean, and Stingray heads to the LaRusso Family home to give Amanda and Carmen Diaz a ride to where Daniel was abandoned earlier by Johnny, Chozen and Mike Barnes. After picking him up, the four of them sped towards the Cobra Kai Dojo in Encino, where a fight between the Cobra Kais, Eagle Fangs and Miyagi-Dos was occurring. However, they were blocked by a group of Cobra Kai students led by Big Red. Stingray dispatched some students along with Big Red who were blocking the entrance and the four headed inside, where Demetri, Eli, and Anthony succeeded in showing a video of Silver revealing to Tory that he had bribed the referee in the name of Cobra Kai's survival, shocking all Cobra Kais.
Once Daniel beats Silver in combat and the Cobra Kais abandon the dojo, Stingray confesses to the Detective about having become a pawn of Silver's and lying about Kreese assaulting him before watching Silver being put in a car and transported to jail for his crime.
Season 6
Despite everything, Raymond’s obsession with Cobra Kai continues. Only this time, he hopes to better his life by appointing himself a sensei despite only having a yellow belt. Stingray sends Johnny a message to meet him at Coyote Creek. Johnny ends up going to Coyote Creek with an axe to meet the mysterious person who texted him and overhears Kreese. It turns out to be Stingray playing a recording of Kreese’s teachings to a group of elementary school students. Stingray says that he heard about the Miyagi-Do naming debate from Bert, and encourages Johnny to reclaim Cobra Kai as his own since it’s his legacy. However, Johnny ultimately rejects him.
It's later revealed that Silver's lawyer eventually managed to get the case thrown out. The lawyer mentions that Stingray was the least credible witness of all time and he tried to get Bert to testify on his behalf, once again resulting in humiliation.
After the Sekai Taikai, Johnny hires Stingray to teach the beginners at Cobra Kai on the weekends.
Fighting Style
Though he believes otherwise, Raymond barely has any true martial arts skill, if any. He is in very poor shape and has a glass jaw. After adopting Kreese's ruthless teachings, Raymond becomes an aggressive fighter, this is evidenced in the school brawl, where he aggressively attacks several Miyagi-Do students. He even uses his hip to attack the students in order to assist Hawk. While hosting an after party, he knocks out neighbor after insulting him. After arriving at Cobra Kai to stop the fight between Cobra Kai and Miyagi Do, Raymond alone beats up Big Red and a few Cobra Kai's. He proves that he can be a strong striker. But overall, he pales in comparison to experienced fighters, such as Terry Silver, as shown when Silver easily beats him senseless. He was floored almost instantly and was incapable of executing any form of defense or counterattack during the beating. He seemingly has enough Karate knowledge to teach kids the basics as he later works under Johnny as the beginner lesson Sensei.
Personality
Raymond is a complete man-child, desperate to attain the unrealistic goal of getting his youth back, and dreads adulthood and the prospect of being viewed as old, as well as growing old. He's portrayed as outlandishly immature, disgustingly irresponsible and ridiculously gullible, as well as naive and devoid of common sense and ignorant of social norms.
To Raymond, life is only worth living if you have constant good times, popularity, awesome karate skills and above all else, youth and young age.
Raymond tries to present himself as happy-go-lucky and a joker, all in a vain attempt to prove he's still a youthful, upbeat, energetic person; however, he's usually seen as boorish and irritating by others, namely Daniel and Johnny, as Raymond is deep in his thirties, and still trying to behave like a teenager. The only known adult who seems to tolerate Raymond to some degree is Kreese, who was seen looking at him in approval when he was the winner in a "red vs. black" combat class.
Raymond lives in the past and is desperate to reclaim his youth, choosing to live vicariously through the Cobra Kai dojo students. He desperately wants to be part of something that; will give him a purpose, as opposed to what he views as a meaningless job. He prefers the company of those significantly younger than he is, both in keeping with his delusions and desperation to avoid acknowledging his own age. In one instance, when he first met Johnny, he said the 80's rocked, but quickly said he'd been only 5 at the time to cover up his age.
He even considers the teenagers he associates himself with as his peers regardless of his advanced age.
A heavily recurring example of Raymond's ignorance and incompetence is that he seems to have no true understanding of consequences a man his age can face (especially from assaulting minors or supplying alcohol to minors, or trying to influence elementary school kids).
Raymond champions whatever victories come his way, regardless of how small or meaningless.
Raymond used to hold down a blue-collar job in a hardware superstore but did not seem to have the understanding or preparation as to what it took to work in white-collar job, as evidenced when he was being interviewed by Principal Lopez. During the school brawl, Stingray intervenes and attacks many students; who are minors, courtesy of the brainwashing done by Cobra Kai's leaders. Upon his release from jail and probation, Raymond believes his willingness to fight in the school brawl should earn him a spot in Cobra Kai or a thank you from the sensei's. Even when viciously beaten by Terry Silver, he goes along with his plan to frame Kreese so that he can be let back into Cobra Kai, as his desire to belong somewhere outweighs his morality.
While Raymond doesn't like being viewed as a loser, it's quite obvious he dislikes being middle-aged and his childhood memories gone even more. Despite being a failure, his family and neighbors' animosity towards him, and whatever humiliation and injury he endures, he always sees adulthood and old age as the far worse fate.
Even his attempt to apply for a job as security guard of the high school was a desperate attempt to stay with Cobra Kai teammates and return to teenage life.
Raymond is also devoid of self awareness and truly believes his behavior, humor and personality to be likable and endearing, while completely oblivious to the fool he makes of himself in the process.
In Season 5, Raymond proves himself to be cowardly, and his childishness shows even more. As Chozen puts it, Raymond "is no Stingray. He is turtle" (because Raymond constantly withdraws from life's pressures and problems instead of courageously facing them head-on).
Fortunately, Raymond's old friend Bert and the Miyagi-Fangs manage to get through to him and convince him that Silver is a monster who must be put behind bars, causing Raymond to redeem himself by aiding in exposing Silver's dark nature to the other Cobra Kai students and put him in prison.
In Season 6, Raymond shows he has some form of self-awareness, but still clings to his delusions, as his obsession with Cobra Kai still persists. Despite Cobra Kai having been closed down and Kreese and Silver out of the picture, Raymond refuses to give up on Cobra Kai (which he views as the only thing that ever made him feel good about himself); he makes himself a sensei and recruits elementary school students using Kreese's lessons. Despite acknowledging his mistakes, Raymond proves he's not fully learned from all the trouble he's gotten into, as shown when he declares, "Real men stay!" to Johnny. This shows he refuses to go back to the way his life had been before he learned of Cobra Kai, working dead-end jobs and facing the harsh realities of adulthood.
Even more unfortunate, Raymond's past actions and incompetence caused further problems; because of his lack of credibility, Silver's lawyer reveals he was able to throw the case out the window, resulting in Silver being freed without persecution, and adds that Raymond made a fool of himself trying to get Bert to testify for him.
Raymond was made a sensei for beginners at Cobra Kai by Johnny. However, whether his manchild behavior will ever truly improve is unknown at this point.
Relationships
Bert
Despite being many years younger, Bert is shown to be Stingray's only real genuine friend. Because Raymond's never really considered a part of Cobra Kai (nor Miyagi do or Eagle Fang for that matter) he often uses Bert as a source of information on the goings on. Bert does indeed consider Raymond a friend and tried to convince Raymond to take courage and help take down Silver.
Johnny Lawrence
Raymond and Johnny first met at Raymond's former hardware store job. Stingray genuinely considers Johnny both friend and inspiration and looks up to him, as unlike everyone else in his life, Johnny never kicked Raymond out. However the friendship is very much one sided as Johnny only tolerated Raymond because he was a paying customer. Initally, Johnny only regarded Raymond with pity and annoyance, although that perspective would later change when Raymond opened up about the personal impact his Cobra Kai iteration has had on him and then encourages the former to reopen his dojo for the Seikai Taikai and lead as Sensei again. By the conclusion of the series, Johnny has hired Raymond as the Sensei who teaches the basics on the weekends.
Daniel LaRusso
Stingray and Daniel don't interact much. Raymond was a fan of LaRusso Motors and expressed so when he first met Daniel with too much enthusiasm. This caused Daniel to be put off by Raymond because of his immature, obnoxious behavior. After joining Cobra Kai, Stingray then viewed Daniel as the enemy simply because of the "Dojo vs Dojo" mentality that had been instilled into the students minds. In Season 5, Daniel violently accuses Raymond of lying about Kreese beating him, which causes Raymond's Playstation to break. After, Chozen calms him down, Daniel leaves disgusted by Raymond's childishness and cowardly nature. However, Daniel was grateful to Raymond later for helping take Silver down. That said however, Daniel still hardly considers Raymond a friend.
Family
Stingray's only known family is his mother and sister. They've yet to be shown, but it is mentioned that because of Raymond's immaturity, obnoxious behavior, failures and antics, they regard him with great disgust, shame and contempt. When Raymond was growing up, his mother prevented him from doing a lot of things, chief among them being allowed to take up Karate. Raymond lived at his mother's for years, her aggravation of him growing, especially since Raymond never paid rent. After the school brawl, where Raymond got arrested, put on probation and hit with a restraining order, his mother was furious and kicked him out, finally giving up on him.
Raymond's sister, who is shown to be successful and well-to-do, begrudgingly lets Raymond stay while she's out of town. Raymond, for his part, seems to care very little for what they think of him since they try to prevent him from having a youthful lifestyle, forcing him into whatever job that would take him and living out his karate dreams. He's even willing to chance his sister's wrath by throwing a prom after-party for teenagers in her house. After Stingray ended up in the hospital because of being beaten by Silver, neither his mother nor his sister seemingly bothered to visit him, thus affirming Raymond is the black sheep of his family and how alone he truly is. This shows they may have finally cut all ties and contact with Raymond.
It is unknown what happened to his dad, as Raymond never mentions anything about his father. Also, it is unknown what his relationship with his father is like whether he tolarates Stingray's manchild behaviour or not.
Following the Sekai Tekai, It's unknown if Raymond's relationship with his mother and sister will ever truly be repaired or improve.
Greg Hughes
Greg is Raymond's sister's irritable neighbor. Raymond and Greg have known each other for quite sometime and Greg makes sure to have his feelings about the great disgust he has for Raymond out in the open, viewing him as a lazy, obnoxious man-child and a shameless freeloader, They argue about this, but Raymond's comebacks fall flat with Greg calling him "Stink-Ray" (while laughing at how appropriate he finds it to be). When Greg tried to shut down his party, Raymond gained a small victory after he knocked Greg out, allowing the party to continue.
Trivia
- His favorite era is the 1980s.
- Raymond is a big fan of Dungeons and Dragons, to the point where he even made his own figurines for it and created his own variation of the game called "Dungeons and Dojos". Of course this infuriated his fellow players calling him the worst Dungeon master.
- Before joining Cobra Kai, Stingray always wanted to learn karate, but his mother wouldn’t let him.
- He was the oldest amongst the Cobra Kai students.
- Stingray could not appear in Season 3 because his actor, Paul Walter Hauser, was busy working on the Disney film Cruella; the writers explained Stingray’s absence by saying he was placed on probation after the school fight.
- In season 5, he is complimented by Chozen on his gaming setup. Chozen calls it a Ninja-level gaming setup, Ninja being a popular Fortnite streamer, but Stingray says Ninja's setup is beyond.
- He has made more appearances in his debut season than the three after.
- Raymond can possibly be described as a person who needed a mentor like Mr. Miyagi while growing up, but never got one.
- So far, the only real glimpse of Raymond's childhood is in the video game Cobra Kai 2: Dojos Rising, showing he was an overweight boy, constantly teased and excluded by others and left crying. As Chozen introduces his level in the game, he is a man often cast aside by society.
- So far, Raymond has never said anything about his father.
- Since his introduction in Season 2, Raymond has shown the least amount of character development of anyone on the show. Each season he becomes even less intelligent than before.
- In season 6, he appeared in the first episode of part 1 and the final episode of part 3 in a bookending kind of way.
Appearances
Season 2
Season 3
- Aftermath (Mentioned)
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6
- Peacetime in the Valley
- Blood In Blood Out (Mentioned)
- Ex-Degenerate
Gallery
