History Characters / TheKarateKidDemetriAlexopoulos

* AintTooProudToBeg: When Hawk is about to break Demetri's arm, Demetri sincerely begs him not to do it. Sadly, he ends up with a proximal radius fracture after Hawk breaks it.

* BadassPacifist: Demetri is one of few students to not instigate a fight against an enemy because of his passionate hatred for violence and he only fights back when he feels attacked or provoked, which means that he's a MartialPacifist as well.

* BirdsOfAFeather: [[spoiler:Yasmine]] and Demetri might seem like an OppositesAttract type of kind of couple, but honestly they are both snarky, mouthy and condescending teens that have suffered from public humiliation so they manage to bond over that and see the good in each other.
* BookSmart: Demetri's an academic and studious nerd and despite his pessimistic nature, he does have his ambitions and when he gets detention for the first time, he's only focused on how it'll hurt his permanent record.
-->'''Demetri:''' I gotta do well on these so I do well on the actual test so I get into a good college, which will lead to a good internship, then a high-paying job, and then, after a couple promotions, I should have enough confidence to get a super-hot girl. You got the karate thing. I gotta play the long game.
* BrainyBrunet: Demetri is a dark haired teen and is TheSmartGuy of Miyagi-Do.

* BullyAndWimpPairing: As soon as Eli becomes Hawk, he becomes Demetri's worst enemy after the latter writes a bad review of the Cobra Kai dojo, which angers Hawk who, for most of the dojo rivalry, tries to make Demetri's life miserable. Luckily, they're able to reconcile, set aside their differences and fight as a team.

* ButtMonkey: Almost all of his training at Miyagi-Do leads to him getting beat up. Even in Season 3, he gets cruelly mocked by Kyler after Hawk breaks his arm.

%%* ClassicalAntiHero
* TheComicallySerious: Subverted. Demetri may be a facetious, awkward and sarcastic jokester while he's too insecure to put in effort for karate, but he's also very rational and the most studious of the members of Miyagi-Do.
* CowardlyLion: His defining trait. He joins Miyagi-Do because he doesn't want to be perceived as a pussy. While it takes him forever and in a year, he sticks solidly with his training, and (faced with an OutsideContextProblem where he tries to get a teacher's help) it pays off in no small way during the school brawl when he disposes of Hawk with one good kick.

* ADayInTheLimelight: Before "All In", Demetri functions pretty low on the recurring cast of characters, always a tagalong but very ineffective at everything. This is the first episode that spends time focusing on him, his response to the Miyagi-Do training and his feelings on what's happened to Miguel and Eli/Hawk.

* DitzyGenius: Demetri may be the smartest teenager in the show, but he's also the most socially oblivious and quite often doesn't know when to shut up.

* DorkKnight: Demetri is one of the most noble characters in the show and he's the nerdiest of all the teens.

* TheFinickyOne: Subverted. While Demetri clearly has a quirky sense of humor and wittiness, he's a ButtMonkey who hardly lets go of his neurotic nature and is often the voice of reason when he's with his friends.

* GoodCounterpart: To Eli/Hawk in Season 2 and 3.

* TheHeart: Yes, believe it or not, the MouthyKid who dismisses others as an act of self-defense is becoming this for the kids. It's his speech that gets the students from Eagle Fang to cooperate with Miyagi-Do when Miguel and Sam's attempts fail, and seeing him in distress is the final catalyst in turning Hawk to their side. In Season 4, he convinces Hawk to return to Miyagi-Do and not give up karate by giving him a pep-talk and reminding him of how important their friendship is. In the following season, when Robby and Hawk get into an argument over their past history, he defuses it by pointing out that they're both "ex-assholes".
%%* HeroicSelfDeprecation

* InsufferableGenius: Demetri is a very intelligent person but he's obnoxious due to how condescending, impudent and brash he is. Demetri is rational and perceptive, and his observations are often spot-on, but his only two modes of communication are whining and snarking. This leads to people shutting him down-or-up at every opportunity, even when they know he's right, just because he comes across as so utterly insufferable.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He's certainly an insensitive, condescending and dismissive person who whines about everything and often mouths off to karate teachers but he's always fiercely devoted to his friends, especially when he's quick to forgive and befriend Hawk after being being bullied by him for so long.

* LikeBrotherAndSister: Sam and Demetri have a close friendship where Sam is like a protective older sister and is always the one to stand up for him.
%%* LovableNerd
* LovableCoward: At first, Demetri was a comically pathetic coward that would rather run away from his problems, instead of trying to defend himself but thanks to Daniel guiding him, he manages to become a lot more braver and be less insecure about himself. Still, he'll readily admit that he prefers not to get into a fight if he can help it.

* MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: The feminine boy to Sam's masculine girl. Mainly since Sam is a more trained and skilled fighter than Demetri is, more aggressive than him and is often one to look after him.

* MouthyKid: His penchant for snarking can cause him to veer into this, especially during his one lesson at Cobra Kai. Johnny does not take kindly to his sassy attitude. ''At all.'' He even remembers him as "that mouthy one" when Miguel tries to warn him about Kreese's increasingly violent behavior.

* NiceGuy: Know-it-all tendencies aside, Demetri is a good person who's super loyal to his friends and was able to forgive Eli for treating him like crap and turning against him. He's easily the least likely to strike hard against another person unless he needs to defend himself and even apologizes to Hawk for kicking him into the school's trophy case.

* NobleMaleRoguishMale: The noble male to Hawk's roguish male as Hawk became more aggressive and bullies others for petty reasons while Demetri prefers to be more worldly and only fights back to defend himself.
* NonActionGuy: He was pretty much Daniel's weakest student and he was unable to physically defend himself against bullies. This is exemplified in Season 2, when he was being attacked by the Cobra Kai in the mall; while Robby and Sam fought back against the attackers in order to save him, Demetri was mostly just standing around avoiding getting hit. Luckily, he was able to improve on his fighting skills, especially after his defeat of Hawk in the school brawl.
* NonActionSnarker: Demetri is pretty much Daniel's snarkiest student and is the most reluctant to fight off his enemies unless it seems necessary.

%%* OddFriendship

** In Season 3, while he does follow Sam as she leads Miyagi-Do to Golf-n-Stuff, Demetri is the only one to question if their actions are necessary.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When it looks like negotiations between Miyagi-do and Eagle Fang are going south, Demetri suddenly raises his voice and starts dropping curse words like crazy during his RousingSpeech (see below). For an awkward kid who takes pride in his eloquent speaking, to hear him speak so loud and coarsely, everyone present was taken aback, and after his speech he even apologized for the language.
--> '''Demetri''': I'm sorry about all the 'assholes'. I usually take pride in my grandiloquence, but it's an emotional time.

* PluckyComicRelief: While he's meant to be the rational intellectual of the the group of Miyagi-Do students, he provides a lot of humor to the show due to how much of a nerdy, awkward goofball he is.

* RedOniBlueOni: Subverted. When the characters are introduced, brash, abrasive and opinionated Demetri is the Red Oni, to quiet, timid Eli's Blue Oni. However, these roles are reversed after Eli joins Cobra Kai and takes on the "Hawk" persona, with Demetri as the rational and intellectual Blue to Hawk's reckless, passionate and brutish Red.
* SadClown: Demetri's facetiousness and acerbic sense of humor is often a way to mask his inner depression and insecurity and for most of Season 2, he whines that he'll never a good fighter compared to the other members of Miyagi-Do.
* SavvyGuyEnergeticGirl: Demetri is the savvy guy and Moon is the energetic girl. As soon as Demetri and Moon become close friends, Demetri is the snarky and rational cynic who's personality completely contrasts with Moon being a naive and ditzy optimist.
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Sensitive guy Demetri is the wimpy nerd while manly man Hawk is the tough guy.

* ShadowArchetype: Hawk grows to view him as one, seeing his more pacifistic and meek tendencies as an embodiment of all the "nerd shit" he wants to reject. Demetri doesn't seem to realize this at first, viewing it as his friend just acting like a jerk until Hawk goes so far as to try and violently assault him for a Yelp review and the two grow to be enemies.

* SophisticatedAsHell: When Eagle Fang students are about to leave Sam's attempt to get them to ally with Miyagi-Do, Demetri [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech stands up and calls them pussies for letting Cobra Kai push them around, saying it makes everyone assholes for tolerating such assholes]]. He then apologizes for using "asshole" so much, as he prefers to be more eloquent than that.
* TheSpock: To Miguel's [[TheKirk Kirk]] and Hawk's [[TheMcCoy McCoy]]. He could not see the reasons behind karate when you can call the police and saw Cobra Kai's unnecessary belligerent teaching as bad. It takes a more compassionate teacher like Daniel to teach him how to defend himself and gain confidence. He is also focused on orthodox defense compared to the two others.

%%* StepfordSnarker

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: This trope ensues when Daniel grows frustrated with Chris and Demetri bickering, and sets the two of them to move a heavy stone as a team. At first, they spend as much time insulting each other as they do actually trying to lift the stone, but once they finish the job they form a solid friendship.

* UndyingLoyalty: As soon as he started training with Daniel in season 2, he has become very loyal to Miyagi-Do even after he had his arm broken in season 3. He was a devoted friend to Eli in season 1 until Eli became Hawk and began to bully Demetri but at least Demetri was able to forgive Eli after he apologized for everything he has done.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: In season 2, Demetri's negative Yelp review in response to Kreese assaulting him is what starts the chain of events that culminated in the school brawl, as in response to it, Hawk brings a gang to assault Demetri at the mall. When he's defeated by Sam and Robby and dumped by Moon for what he did as a result, he is encouraged by Kreese to vandalize Miyagi-Do in response, which includes stealing Mr. Miyagi's Medal of Honor. Robby subsequently lies about the medal when Miguel returns it to Sam, which leads to her kissing Miguel while drunk when she finds out the truth from Aisha, which is seen by Tory, who decides to respond by picking a fight at school.
* WeakButSkilled: Demetri's scrawny, lanky and probably the weakest Miyagi-Do fighter but eventually with his long speedy legs, he's quick to defend himself and fight back against enemies.

* TheSmartGuy: His dedication to physical training is inversely proportional to his dedication to his academic studies and is the most inclined to use his head in a fight. He is also the only character in the franchise to immediately understand the purpose of Miyagi-Do's [[WaxOnWaxOff unorthodox training methods]].

* CoolLoser: He seems to have become this by Season 3. While he is still regularly picked on and laughed at by other students, most of them still seem to remember Demetri's involvement in the school fight (i.e. beating Hawk) and recognized that he was a legitimate karateka. And Demetri, with his newfound confidence, is seen more often winning others over with his passionate pursuit of academics and dorky interests.

** His karate skills improve dramatically between the end of Season 2 and Season 3, and he's able to take on several Cobra Kai members head on without relying entirely on defense. During the house fight, he's the last Miyagi-do fighter to go down and it's primarily due to being outnumbered. By the end of Season 3, it's safe to say that next to Sam, he is the best student in Miyagi-Do (and the best in applying Miyagi-Do's philosophy of "fighting only when needed").

** [[spoiler:Despite things in Season 3 escalating to the point where he was willing to break his arm, Hawk ultimately sees the error of his ways, and passes up the chance to take down Demetri by attacking his captors instead, apologizing to him afterwards. Demetri seems more than happy to take up his offer of dealing with the remaining Cobra Kai students. By the end, they're finally back to being the ThreeAmigos with Miguel.]]