Daniel is soft-spoken and is a great mentor to the students. He also confronts tough situations in an honourable way. It seems like Mr. Miyagi has taught Daniel well.
It's funny that fans of Cobra Kai have become so caught up in how the show makes us look at Johnny Lawrence in a new light, but it's often looked over that it's also further validated Daniel as well - his decisions, his worldview and his behavior. A lot of that is done through the kids on the show.
Some of the central characters - Miguel, Eli, and now Kenny - were victims of bullying. They were seemingly normal teens with a few eccentric personalities that ended up being on the receiving end of school bullies. All three characters turned to Karate to learn how to defend themselves - all three characters ended up "flipping the script" and becoming bullies themselves for a short time. Especially Eli and now it seems like Kenny. And that's because a lot of kids who get bullied end up with trauma that sticks with them. Just like Daniel.
Jokes and irony aside, Daniel was definitely not a bully in Karate Kid. He came to town, tried to make some friends, flirted with a girl he had no idea had a breakup, and Johnny and his Cobra Kai pals essentially ganged up on him at every chance they could to bother, humiliate or even nearly kill him.
Worse still is that the very name of Cobra Kai comes with it some serious baggage of past trauma - from actual adults who should be beyond "bullying", yet an entire movie was essentially dedicated to how one of them hired a bully to beat up, harass and threaten Daniel into doing something he didn't want and the adult sensei manipulated Daniel into driving a wedge between him and Miyagi. Then during the second tournament, they used it as a playground for a glorified beatdown instead of a fair fight.
Everything since then - Daniel's fear and disdain for the name "Cobra Kai", his seemingly irrational disapproval and feud with Johnny, and his continued hostility towards everyone associated with Cobra Kai - should then come in crystal clear focus as a result of PTSD over bullying - Just like the new kids who ended becoming bullies because they themselves were bullied. Daniel has occasionally become that as well. Yet it's completely 100% understandable why and most people in his shoes would act very similar.
I loved him in the original movies but he felt kind of like he was slowing down the progression of the actually dojo, I know it is important for the story line and that he is just playing his role really well, but there are so many moments he just gets on my nerves. Anyone else agree?
I have been watching old Karate Kid 3 clips ahead of S4 having seen the original when it come out and then more recently last year. Below are my head canon thoughts.
https://youtu.be/3GXy0LijiKk
It's pretty apparent from watching the final fight again how much it cements the love the crowd has for him. Daniel was likely brought back and given a bye for the tournament given how popular he was. They see their local legend who won last year's tournament very unexpectedly go up against a karate beast in Mike Barnes, a guy who has won multiple national tournaments who he really should not have much of a realistic chance with. Barnes proceeds to hit Daniel with an illegal kick to the groin, direct punch to the face, multiple kicks to the back, hard punches etc. to keep the scope going back to zero-zero so he can torture Daniel as much as possible, in-between all his legitimate hits which are also doing damage. Any competent tournament would have disqualified Barnes multiple times.
You hear the crowd noise shift more as they realise what is happening to their guy, whose story they are very familiar with and has kids and crowd members cheering for him. They know this final has been turned into a BS display of sadism by disgraced psychopath John Kreese and his toxic waste entrepreneur buddy Terry Silver who are doing this to bring back Cobra Kai as a karate franchise.
Therefore after they see and hear Mike Barnes insult Daniel before the final point and dole out racial slurs to Mr Miyagi, they are getting truly pissed off and outraged. Then Daniel pulls off the impossible by refocusing using his kata, confusing Mike Barnes and taking him down to win the point in sudden death and the tournament. The crowd goes bananas.
The prior year Daniel was a huge upset winner. This year his opponents knew what they were going up against, brought in a ringer from outside who was a national champion and world-class asshole and were humiliated and lost again. Their local legend overcame his fear, a beating that would have probably hospitalised him and used discipline, determination and skill to pull off an even bigger upset. Winners like that come around very rarely and it was the kudos and goodwill from that propelled Daniel upwards through the rest of his successful life and career.
Curious on your take
Danny Rand is the immortal Iron Fist, the sworn defender of K'un L'un and defeating the Hand or some such nonsense. Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso are two middle aged karate masters who turn nerds into bullies and have the powers of 80s camp on their side. Who wins if these martial artists meet?
LaRusso and Lawrence fight Rand. Rand does NOT have the Iron Fist. He is just normal Danny Rand who gets his shit rocked by Daredevil and Elektra and that drunk guy and maybe Colleen?
Fight in a warehouse. 2v1. Karate Men are bloodlusted and at peak. Danny Rand is without his chi, but otherwise at his normal level.
Bonus: Mr. Miyagi VS MCU Kingpin.
As Daniel LaRusso loses the All Valley Tournament to Johnny Lawrence, he would be pissed the hell off, shocked that the technique he tried failed. He storms back to the locker room where his mom, Alley and Mr. Miyagi would follow. Daniel's mother would try comforting him, but he would tell her and Ali to leave the room. As they leave, Mr. Miyagi would tell Daniel that he did his best and it was not about winning and he was proud of him either way. Daniel would snap at Mr. Miyagi, saying that all that hard work he did throughout those month's were absolutely pointless. What was all of that training for if he lost? Miyagi tries to stop Daniel from saying more, but Daniel interrupts him saying that he's done with him. That he never wants to see Mr. Miyagi ever again because he failed him. Mr. Miyagi gets very upset, telling Daniel that he is sorry and he will never bother him again and leaves.
The next morning Ali meets up with Daniel in school and tries her best to make him feel better, telling him that she didn't care if he lost, and that she still cares for him. Daniel would shut her down saying that he's tired of all the bullshit he had to endure with her and Johnny around. He then tells her if he didn't meet her then he wouldn't have met Johnny, blaming her for the entire events that transpired. Ali slaps Daniel of the face and yells at him, suddenly starting to cry and runs off. Daniel would never meet face to face with Ali after this. Day's later he would see that she had gone back to dating Johnny Lawrence.
Six months later, Mr. Miyagi quit his job as a repair man at the apartments. He receives a letter from Okinawa about his dying father. He would go although this time all alone without Daniel LaRusso to accompany him on the trip. Their he would run into Sato and his rude Nephew Chozen about their next fight. Miyagi would see his father die along side Sato. Sato would give him his day's to mourn for his father until their eventual fight. The funeral happens and Miyagi would have to mourn by himself watching the sunset. He would think about the failures in his life and think about his most recent one, Daniel. He would miss him very much along with his father beginning to cry.
After the days passed, he would meet with Sato and fight him. This however would be the last time we see Mr. Miyagi as he loses in the fight with Sato and dies, given no mercy.
The Typhoon would soon hit Okinawa resulting however in more death's. Chozen would be led into shel
... keep reading on reddit ➡Can these three karate masters possibly take down an unarmed Clint Barton?
Round 1: the fight takes place in a New York City parking lot and Hawkeye is ambushed
Round 2: the fight takes place in a dojo with everyone unarmed and ready for the fight
Is there anyway in hell Hawkeye is going down?
Mind = Blown
Who would win in trio Karate battle?
Miyagi-Do: Daniel LaRusso, Samantha LaRusso, and Miguel Diaz
vs.
Cobra Kai: John Kreese, Tory Nichols, and Robby Keane
R1 John Wick has no weapons but they are fighting in MacDonalds so he can use weapons there and Daniel and the rest also doesn't have weapons.
R2 Daniel has a staff, Chozen has a butterfly knife and Johnny has his motorcycle while John Wick has no weapons and they are in an alley way at night time.
Perhaps with the suggestion of my best friend that I watched all 3 Karate Kid movies before binging the series a few months back that I really understand Daniel's character, and don't hate him as much as others. In fact he's my favorite character, and I wanted to just explain and defend him from my perspective.
From the first season it's very easy to write Daniel off as the villain of the first season, but having seen all 3 movies it makes sense to me.
We first see Daniel at his dealership, and yeah he was a jackass there though I think in his mind he was just teasing Johnny, but there was no bad blood for him there I don't think. He was willing to pay for the repairs to his car which I believe he was sincere in. He meant no ill will there. He as trying to help Johnny out.
Shortly after Kyler twists the story of the parking lot incident at the strip mall to make it look like Johnny just attacked him. Now we as an audience know this is bullshit. But Daniel has history there as Johnny and the Cobra Kai's attacked him at the Halloween dance and nearly beat him to death that night or could have put him in the hospital. If not for Miyagi stepping in. So he goes to confront him, and sees he has a student. This is pointing to signs of Cobra Kai. Johnny tells him what happened but I don't think it helped he brought up his daughter. Even then he was questioning Sam a bit.
Cut to the dance in comes Miguel in the infamous skeleton costume that definitely triggers Daniel's flashbacks to that night, and at this point he is still questioning Sam and doesn't trust Kyler. Only to sort of be proven wrong, or well lied to about it. etc.
So far yes all these issues are being surfaced from the first movie until...
Episode 7. The episode Johnny tries to get Cobra Kai reinstated into the tournaments. We know Johnny's being sincere, and so Daniel for sure comes off poorly to the other members and audience even. But take into account that Cobra Kai was banned because of the actions of Barnes, Kreese and Silver. Of course Johnny doesn't know who Barnes and Silver are.
Johnny also mentions Kreese is dead [which is bullshit, at the time the audience doesn't know this nor does Johnny] but Daniel doesn't believe it, and if you think back to Karate Kid 3 when Daniel and Miyagi are told by Silver that Kreese is dead, and Daniel buys it and sympathizes. At that point in his life Kreese was a jackass who tried to choke out Johnny in the parking lot for getting
... keep reading on reddit ➡Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence decide they want to settle their rivalry once and for all and set a date in exactly one year.
Daniel somehow ends up training with Batman and Johnny somehow ends up training with Hawkeye
The fight takes place in a standard dojo who wins?
Bonus: Can they beat Kreese who’s been training with Bane for the past two years and now has access to venom?
Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso have both been injected with the super soldier serum can they stop these enemies
Round one: the duo vs Bane (TDKR) in a dojo
Round two: the duo vs Peacemaker (TSS) with no weapons in an abandoned warehouse
Round three: the duo vs two Parademons (ZSJL) in the Batcave
Round four: the duo vs Green Goblin (Raimi movies) in Times Square
Round five: the duo vs Punisher (Netflix) no weapons in the city streets
Round six: the duo vs Jason Voorhees (zombie) at Crystal Lake. Can they escape?
Round seven: the duo vs Michael Myers in Haddonfield
1984 - The Karate Kid
2018 - Present - The Karate Uncle lol
Daredevil is in his season 1 suit, and all the senseis are in karate uniforms. No weapons for any of them.
Who would win and why?
When Terry is talking to Daniel about how he loved being Cobra Kai does anyone else feel like that was a pitch?
I mean by this point he’s subtly priming himself to remove Kreese. He hates Johnny. And tolerates Daniel’s style of karate being taught besides his own.
Given how dominant his dojo was as a result of having both techniques and a cohesive training program compared to Eagle Fang and Miyagi Do. I could see him trying to get Daniel to come over to Cobra Kai.
I'm currently doing a rewatch, on S3E10.
During my first watch back in May-ish, I loved the house battle. But at the same time I couldn't stop thinking how stupid of a move it was, for the students and the writers(plausibility).
The way they have written Amanda, she would call the police and for sure have charges pressed against the Cobra Kai. But watching the trailer, clearly Cobra Kai gets out of it. Just curious on anyone's take on how they get out of serious repercussions.
CK SPOILER WARNING!
After the events of the Karate kid trilogy, Daniel LaRusso is pretty successful in life now, especially after being mentored by Mr. Miyagi and winning two Karate tournaments, it made sense on what his life would become 30 years later. Daniel now runs a successful Auto Dealership business with his wife Amanda, he has two kids that he loves very much, he lives in pretty huge house in a beautiful neighborhood. Life is going great for him. Later on, he gets back into Karate and becomes his very own sensei after taking in his very first student. He opens up a dojo and gets even more students, at first he starts to doubt himself because he keeps comparing himself to Mr. Miyagi but then learns that he teach his own way instead of trying to be like Mr. Miyagi. He always remembers what Mr. Miyagi taught him, like in that one scene where he visits his grave and remembers when Mr. Miyagi taught him about balance. It shows how much he still values Mr. Miyagi’s teachings even after 30 years. Later on, shit hits the fan when his most promising student Robbie, did something horrible. Daniel now being blamed for what happened to Miguel due to his Karate teachings and with Robbie being on the run as a fugitive, his life starts going downhill. However, he doesn’t fuck off and mope about his failures, he’s willing to admit when he fails and he doesn’t give up on Robbie, he makes the effort to help Robbie and learn from his mistakes as a teacher. And even when Robbie hates him, he makes every attempt to get in contact with him and be there for him. He doesn’t give up when his business is failing due to the aftermath of the Karate clash at the school, he makes every effort he can in order to save his business. By the end of Season 3, he returns to teaching his students again to make sure that Cobra Kai doesn’t corrupt the valley with their wrong teachings of Karate.
With Luke Skywalker, after everything that has happened in the OT, all the things that he was taught by Obi Wan and Yoda, 30 years later, the dude just gives up, he abandons his friends, doesn’t care about The First Order going around the galaxy and killing innocent lives, he doesn’t care about fixing his mistakes, or make amends with Ben Solo, he doesn’t care about teaching Rey. He doesn’t make another attempt at reviving the Jedi Order. He just gives up and becomes a failure.
How do you felt about Adult! Daniel Larruso's habit of talking about Mr.Miyagi in the episodes of Cobra Kai's seasons?
Is it a bad thing or not?
-
Johnny Lawrence
-
Chozen
-
Barnes
Premise: Instead of Hawkins, Billy Hargrove moves to the Valley with his family.
After being invited to a beach party, he starts flirting with Ali then encounters Johnny.
What happens from here on out? How will the dynamic be with Billy and Johnny/Cobras? How will Johnny respond to Billy's nature and desire to be the top dog? How will Billy deal with the Cobras messing with? How crazy do their antics go?
They all learned to fight together. Mr. Miyagi, Kreese, and Silver are in their primes from the Karate Kid series, LaRusso, and Lawrence are from Cobra Kai's series. Who is the strongest character that these karate masters can defeat together?
