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Changed line(s) 107 (click to see context) from:
* DumbBlonde: He's a reckless manchild who's ignorant to modern times and believes karate is American, a mongoose is not an animal and eagles have fangs.
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* DumbBlonde: He's a reckless manchild who's ignorant to modern times and believes karate is American, a mongoose is not an animal and eagles have fangs. [[SmarterThanYouLook He can still be pretty sharp when he needs to, though.]]
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Changed line(s) 179 (click to see context) from:
* {{Hypocrite}}: Johnny is a hypocrite on multiple occasions:
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* {{Hypocrite}}: Johnny is a hypocrite on multiple occasions:{{Hypocrite}}:
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Fix typo
Changed line(s) 260 (click to see context) from:
* RatedMForManly: Firmly practices and preaches this and is practically inherent in Cobra Kai's philosophy. Many of Johnny's personal traits and beliefs are just manners of him asserting his masculinity and being a badass: answering most situations with violence, listening to rock music, driving American muscle cars, being a hit with the ladies,. etc.
to:
* RatedMForManly: Firmly practices and preaches this and is practically inherent in Cobra Kai's philosophy. Many of Johnny's personal traits and beliefs are just manners of him asserting his masculinity and being a badass: answering most situations with violence, listening to rock music, driving American muscle cars, being a hit with the ladies,. ladies, etc.
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Adjust Bully reference to The Bully
Changed line(s) 246 (click to see context) from:
* PetTheDog: Often bully Characters are portrayed as treating their lackeys with contempt but Johnny appears to genuinely consider the group his friends and is always respectful to them.
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* PetTheDog: Often bully Characters [[TheBully Bully]] characters are portrayed as treating their lackeys with contempt contempt, but Johnny appears to genuinely consider the group his friends and is always respectful to them.
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Fix typo
Changed line(s) 231 (click to see context) from:
** [[spoiler:After Miguel doesn't come back to finish his fight with Hawk and disapers in the season 4 finale, Johnny realizes that it's his fault for disregaurding what Miguel wants all season.]]
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** [[spoiler:After Miguel doesn't come back to finish his fight with Hawk and disapers in the season 4 finale, Johnny realizes that it's his fault for disregaurding disregarding what Miguel wants all season.]]
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Adjust phrase: "whaling on" not "wailing on"
Changed line(s) 186 (click to see context) from:
'''Johnny:''' It means that those friends of hers were wailing on a kid half their size. Now, maybe you don't know your daughter as well as you think you do. Get your house in order, [=LaRusso=].
to:
'''Johnny:''' It means that those friends of hers were wailing whaling on a kid half their size. Now, maybe you don't know your daughter as well as you think you do. Get your house in order, [=LaRusso=].
Changed line(s) 247 (click to see context) from:
* PapaWolf: For Miguel, and Robby, despite the latter's dislike of him. [[spoiler:When he finds Miguel battered and bloodied from the fight at the [=LaRusso=] home, Johnny immediately heads off to confront Kreese. When he finds Robby wearing a Cobra Kai gi, he promptly starts wailing on his old sensei.]] He grows to become this for his students as a whole; messing with any of them when he's around is NOT a good idea. [[spoiler:This even extends to the Miyagi-Do students once he and Daniel decide to join forces.]]
to:
* PapaWolf: For Miguel, and Robby, despite the latter's dislike of him. [[spoiler:When he finds Miguel battered and bloodied from the fight at the [=LaRusso=] home, Johnny immediately heads off to confront Kreese. When he finds Robby wearing a Cobra Kai gi, he promptly starts wailing whaling on his old sensei.]] He grows to become this for his students as a whole; messing with any of them when he's around is NOT a good idea. [[spoiler:This even extends to the Miyagi-Do students once he and Daniel decide to join forces.]]
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Fix spoiler tags in Drowning My Sorrows
Changed line(s) 105 (click to see context) from:
* DrowningMySorrows: Comes with being TheAlcoholic. You can pretty much expect any time a situation involves Robby, he’ll be doing this. Some notable moments include [[spoiler:the aftermath after bringing an injured Miguel back to his angered mother, Johnny's reaction to his son being a student of Daniel, and the last moment of Season 1. His worst comes in Season 2 after he's unable to locate Robby and finds out the boy is living with the [=LaRussos=]. Carmen has to help him inside and get him sobered up.] Happens again in Season 4 after [[spoiler:Terry Silver lures him to the old Cobra Kai building and kicks the shit out of him there. Miguel later finds him at his apartment on the floor, completely plastered and surrounded by beer cans, having even pissed himself.]]
to:
* DrowningMySorrows: Comes with being TheAlcoholic. You can pretty much expect any time a situation involves Robby, he’ll be doing this. Some notable moments include [[spoiler:the the aftermath after bringing an injured Miguel back to his angered mother, Johnny's reaction to his son being a student of Daniel, and the last moment of Season 1. His worst comes in Season 2 after he's unable to locate Robby and finds out the boy is living with the [=LaRussos=]. Carmen has to help him inside and get him sobered up.] Happens again in Season 4 after [[spoiler:Terry Silver lures him to the old Cobra Kai building and kicks the shit out of him there. Miguel later finds him at his apartment on the floor, completely plastered and surrounded by beer cans, having even pissed himself.]]
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Changed line(s) 178 (click to see context) from:
* {{Hunk}}: No longer the PrettyBoy he use to be, but apart from some wrinkles as pointed out by his old friend Bobby, Johnny still has some rugged handsomeness going for him. Funnily enough, several people that have only seen or known Johnny as an adult assumed that [[IWasQuiteALooker he was quite the heartthrob]] (Amanda and Terry Silver explicitly called Johnny a "pretty boy").
to:
* {{Hunk}}: No As an adult, Johnny's no longer the PrettyBoy he use to be, but be. Though apart from some wrinkles as pointed out by his old friend Bobby, Johnny still has some rugged handsomeness going for him. Funnily enough, several people that have only seen or known Johnny as an adult assumed that [[IWasQuiteALooker he was quite the heartthrob]] (Amanda and Terry Silver explicitly called Johnny a "pretty boy").heartthrob]].
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* PrettyBoy: As an adolescent, Johnny was a quintessential 80s knockout. He's lost much of it as he got older, though some adults still consider him rather handsome for his age (Amanda and Terry Silver explicitly called Johnny a "pretty boy").
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Changed line(s) 203,204 (click to see context) from:
* {{Jerkass}}: He's an arrogant bully who enjoys lording his toughness over other people.
* JerkJock: A much more popular, better looking, and tougher kid than Daniel-san.
* JerkJock: A much more popular, better looking, and tougher kid than Daniel-san.
to:
* {{Jerkass}}: He's In the first film, he's an arrogant bully who enjoys lording his toughness over other people.
people. He humbles out considerably after losing to Daniel and being treated like shit by Kreese afterwards. While still a jerk by his fifties, he's also a more complex person by that point.
* JerkJock:A In the first film, he was a much more popular, better looking, and tougher kid than Daniel-san.
* JerkJock:
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Minor edits.
Changed line(s) 52 (click to see context) from:
* * BeautyIsBad: A more conventionally handsome kid than Daniel-san.
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Changed line(s) 84 (click to see context) from:
** Similarly, at the end of season 4 [[spoiler: his dojo is hanging by a thread, Cobra Kai is poised to take over the valley, and Miguel runs away to try and track down his birth father. The only thing keeping him from falling completely in despair is Robby showing up.]]
to:
** Similarly, at the end of season 4 [[spoiler: his [[spoiler:his dojo is hanging by a thread, Cobra Kai is poised to take over the valley, and Miguel runs away to try and track down his birth father. The only thing keeping him from falling completely in despair is Robby showing up.]]
Changed line(s) 91 (click to see context) from:
** It's later revealed in Season 4 [[spoiler: that wasn't entirely the case. Johnny's dad left when he was in kindergarten, with a young Johnny keeping a box of his things, including a period-accurate [[GenerationXerox Coors beer can]]. Johnny does imply to Miguel that he ''could'' track him down, but that's all the information we get]].
to:
** It's later revealed in Season 4 [[spoiler: that [[spoiler:that wasn't entirely the case. Johnny's dad left when he was in kindergarten, with a young Johnny keeping a box of his things, including a period-accurate [[GenerationXerox Coors beer can]]. Johnny does imply to Miguel that he ''could'' track him down, but that's all the information we get]].
Changed line(s) 105 (click to see context) from:
* DrowningMySorrows: Comes with being TheAlcoholic. You can pretty much expect any time a situation involves Robby, he’ll be doing this. Some notable moments include [[spoiler:the aftermath after bringing an injured Miguel back to his angered mother, Johnny's reaction to his son being a student of Daniel, and the last moment of Season 1. His worst comes in Season 2 after he's unable to locate Robby and finds out the boy is living with the [=LaRussos=]. Carmen has to help him inside and get him sobered up.] Happens again in Season 4 after [[spoiler: Terry Silver lures him to the old Cobra Kai building and kicks the shit out of him there. Miguel later finds him at his apartment on the floor, completely plastered and surrounded by beer cans, having even pissed himself.]]
to:
* DrowningMySorrows: Comes with being TheAlcoholic. You can pretty much expect any time a situation involves Robby, he’ll be doing this. Some notable moments include [[spoiler:the aftermath after bringing an injured Miguel back to his angered mother, Johnny's reaction to his son being a student of Daniel, and the last moment of Season 1. His worst comes in Season 2 after he's unable to locate Robby and finds out the boy is living with the [=LaRussos=]. Carmen has to help him inside and get him sobered up.] Happens again in Season 4 after [[spoiler: Terry [[spoiler:Terry Silver lures him to the old Cobra Kai building and kicks the shit out of him there. Miguel later finds him at his apartment on the floor, completely plastered and surrounded by beer cans, having even pissed himself.]]
Changed line(s) 112 (click to see context) from:
** He names [[spoiler: his new Karate school]] Eagle Fang[[labelnote:*]]due to eagles being able to kill snakes[[/labelnote]] because he believes that mongooses are a fictional animal.
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** He names [[spoiler: his [[spoiler:his new Karate school]] Eagle Fang[[labelnote:*]]due to eagles being able to kill snakes[[/labelnote]] because he believes that mongooses are a fictional animal.
Changed line(s) 163 (click to see context) from:
-->'''Johnny''': You're alright, [=LaRusso=]. Good match!
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Changed line(s) 201 (click to see context) from:
* ItsAllAboutMe: Johnny falls into this hard in a lot of the second half of season 4. The worse of it is during the season 4 All-Valley where [[spoiler: he tells Miguel, who was just in tremendous pain from pulling a muscle and didn't want to keep fighting, to go back out there and stick it to Daniel by beating Eli. The fact that he brushed off Miguel also not wanting to fight his friend with "he made his choice" (remember that Eli was also Johnny's student for a long time), only further proves Johnny has completely lost sight of his students and especially Miguel's wellbeing in favor of (once again) his rivalry with Daniel. Unforunatly, Johnny is only snapped out of this by Miguel running away from the All-Valley (and later to Mexico), [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone much to Johnny's regret]]]].
to:
* ItsAllAboutMe: Johnny falls into this hard in a lot of the second half of season 4. The worse of it is during the season 4 All-Valley where [[spoiler: he [[spoiler:he tells Miguel, who was just in tremendous pain from pulling a muscle and didn't want to keep fighting, to go back out there and stick it to Daniel by beating Eli. The fact that he brushed off Miguel also not wanting to fight his friend with "he made his choice" (remember that Eli was also Johnny's student for a long time), only further proves Johnny has completely lost sight of his students and especially Miguel's wellbeing in favor of (once again) his rivalry with Daniel. Unforunatly, Johnny is only snapped out of this by Miguel running away from the All-Valley (and later to Mexico), [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone much to Johnny's regret]]]].
Changed line(s) 243 (click to see context) from:
* OfficialCouple: [[spoiler: After the ambiguity of their relationship status in the previous season, in Season 4, after a few misunderstandings, Johnny finally stops beating around the bush and confesses his love for Carmen, which she reciprocates. As of Episode 3, they're properly together.]]
to:
* OfficialCouple: [[spoiler: After [[spoiler:After the ambiguity of their relationship status in the previous season, in Season 4, after a few misunderstandings, Johnny finally stops beating around the bush and confesses his love for Carmen, which she reciprocates. As of Episode 3, they're properly together.]]
Changed line(s) 247 (click to see context) from:
* PapaWolf: For Miguel, and Robby, despite the latter's dislike of him. [[spoiler:When he finds Miguel battered and bloodied from the fight at the [=LaRusso=] home, Johnny immediately heads off to confront Kreese. When he finds Robby wearing a Cobra Kai gi, he promptly starts wailing on his old sensei.]] He grows to become this for his students as a whole; messing with any of them when he's around is NOT a good idea. [[spoiler: This even extends to the Miyagi-Do students once he and Daniel decide to join forces.]]
to:
* PapaWolf: For Miguel, and Robby, despite the latter's dislike of him. [[spoiler:When he finds Miguel battered and bloodied from the fight at the [=LaRusso=] home, Johnny immediately heads off to confront Kreese. When he finds Robby wearing a Cobra Kai gi, he promptly starts wailing on his old sensei.]] He grows to become this for his students as a whole; messing with any of them when he's around is NOT a good idea. [[spoiler: This [[spoiler:This even extends to the Miyagi-Do students once he and Daniel decide to join forces.]]
Changed line(s) 294,295 (click to see context) from:
* VitriolicBestBuds: [[PlayingWithATrope Played With.]] It's shown on multiple occasions that if he and Daniel could put their differences aside, they'd get along like a house on fire. However, a combination of PoorCommunicationKills and their interschool rivalry means that any moments of friendship end up being fleeting at best and they go back to being enemies. [[spoiler: They finally become this trope in earnest at the end of Season 3, when they bury the hatchet and join forces to defeat Kreese together.]]
** Season 4 zigzags this; [[spoiler: they start by attempting to bond and get an understanding of one-another; they even exchange their respective students for some cross-discipline training, and their animosity has simmered to the point they're willing to be in the same photo for their dating children. However, they still cannot let bygones be bygones, and their egos get the better of them, culminating in a long-awaited karate rematch between the two. This leads to them separating their efforts before the All Valley, running Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang as two separate teams. During the tournament, though, they once again put their differences aside for Samantha's sake, and Daniel requests Johnny be announced as a mutual sensei for her, when it becomes clear she is using both their teachings to forge her own path. Regardless their falling out, it's clear they still respect each other, and are finally willing to put their grudges aside for the sake of their students; especially their own children.]]
** Season 4 zigzags this; [[spoiler: they start by attempting to bond and get an understanding of one-another; they even exchange their respective students for some cross-discipline training, and their animosity has simmered to the point they're willing to be in the same photo for their dating children. However, they still cannot let bygones be bygones, and their egos get the better of them, culminating in a long-awaited karate rematch between the two. This leads to them separating their efforts before the All Valley, running Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang as two separate teams. During the tournament, though, they once again put their differences aside for Samantha's sake, and Daniel requests Johnny be announced as a mutual sensei for her, when it becomes clear she is using both their teachings to forge her own path. Regardless their falling out, it's clear they still respect each other, and are finally willing to put their grudges aside for the sake of their students; especially their own children.]]
to:
* VitriolicBestBuds: [[PlayingWithATrope Played With.]] It's shown on multiple occasions that if he and Daniel could put their differences aside, they'd get along like a house on fire. However, a combination of PoorCommunicationKills and their interschool rivalry means that any moments of friendship end up being fleeting at best and they go back to being enemies. [[spoiler: They [[spoiler:They finally become this trope in earnest at the end of Season 3, when they bury the hatchet and join forces to defeat Kreese together.]]
** Season 4 zigzags this;[[spoiler: they [[spoiler:they start by attempting to bond and get an understanding of one-another; they even exchange their respective students for some cross-discipline training, and their animosity has simmered to the point they're willing to be in the same photo for their dating children. However, they still cannot let bygones be bygones, and their egos get the better of them, culminating in a long-awaited karate rematch between the two. This leads to them separating their efforts before the All Valley, running Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang as two separate teams. During the tournament, though, they once again put their differences aside for Samantha's sake, and Daniel requests Johnny be announced as a mutual sensei for her, when it becomes clear she is using both their teachings to forge her own path. Regardless their falling out, it's clear they still respect each other, and are finally willing to put their grudges aside for the sake of their students; especially their own children.]]
** Season 4 zigzags this;
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Changed line(s) 295 (click to see context) from:
** Season 4 zigzags this; [[spoiler: they start by attempting to bond and get an understanding of one-another; they even exchange their respective students for some cross-discipline training, and their animosity has simmered to the point they're willing to be in the same photo for their dating children. However, they still cannot let bygones be bygones, and their egos get the better of them, culminating in a long-awaited karate rematch between the two. This leads to them separating their efforts before the All Valley, running Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang as two separate teams. During the tournmanet, though they once again put their differences aside, and Daniel requests Johnny be announced as a mutual sensei with him for Samantha, when it becomes clear she is using both their teachings to forge her own path. Regardless their falling out, it's clear they still respect each other, and are finally willing to put their grudges aside for the sake of their students; especially their own children.]]
to:
** Season 4 zigzags this; [[spoiler: they start by attempting to bond and get an understanding of one-another; they even exchange their respective students for some cross-discipline training, and their animosity has simmered to the point they're willing to be in the same photo for their dating children. However, they still cannot let bygones be bygones, and their egos get the better of them, culminating in a long-awaited karate rematch between the two. This leads to them separating their efforts before the All Valley, running Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang as two separate teams. During the tournmanet, though tournament, though, they once again put their differences aside, aside for Samantha's sake, and Daniel requests Johnny be announced as a mutual sensei with him for Samantha, her, when it becomes clear she is using both their teachings to forge her own path. Regardless their falling out, it's clear they still respect each other, and are finally willing to put their grudges aside for the sake of their students; especially their own children.]]
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Added DiffLines:
** Season 4 zigzags this; [[spoiler: they start by attempting to bond and get an understanding of one-another; they even exchange their respective students for some cross-discipline training, and their animosity has simmered to the point they're willing to be in the same photo for their dating children. However, they still cannot let bygones be bygones, and their egos get the better of them, culminating in a long-awaited karate rematch between the two. This leads to them separating their efforts before the All Valley, running Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang as two separate teams. During the tournmanet, though they once again put their differences aside, and Daniel requests Johnny be announced as a mutual sensei with him for Samantha, when it becomes clear she is using both their teachings to forge her own path. Regardless their falling out, it's clear they still respect each other, and are finally willing to put their grudges aside for the sake of their students; especially their own children.]]
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Changed line(s) 105,106 (click to see context) from:
* DrowningMySorrows: Comes with being TheAlcoholic. Some notable moments include [[spoiler:the aftermath after bringing an injured Miguel back to his angered mother, Johnny's reaction to his son being a student of Daniel, and the last moment of Season 1. His worst comes in Season 2 after he's unable to locate Robby and finds out the boy is living with the [=LaRussos=]. Carmen has to help him inside and get him sobered up.]]
** Happens again in Season 4 after [[spoiler: Terry Silver lures him to the old Cobra Kai building and kicks the shit out of him there. Miguel later finds him at his apartment on the floor, completely plastered and surrounded by beer cans, having even pissed himself.]]
** Happens again in Season 4 after [[spoiler: Terry Silver lures him to the old Cobra Kai building and kicks the shit out of him there. Miguel later finds him at his apartment on the floor, completely plastered and surrounded by beer cans, having even pissed himself.]]
to:
* DrowningMySorrows: Comes with being TheAlcoholic. You can pretty much expect any time a situation involves Robby, he’ll be doing this. Some notable moments include [[spoiler:the aftermath after bringing an injured Miguel back to his angered mother, Johnny's reaction to his son being a student of Daniel, and the last moment of Season 1. His worst comes in Season 2 after he's unable to locate Robby and finds out the boy is living with the [=LaRussos=]. Carmen has to help him inside and get him sobered up.]]
**] Happens again in Season 4 after [[spoiler: Terry Silver lures him to the old Cobra Kai building and kicks the shit out of him there. Miguel later finds him at his apartment on the floor, completely plastered and surrounded by beer cans, having even pissed himself.]]
**
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Added DiffLines:
* HotBlooded: As a teen, Johnny was nothing if not a hot-tempered hot shot. As an adult, he's a bit less so due to jadedness, but is still prone to acting quite aggressively when riled up. Kreese even lampshades when they reunited after 35 years that Johnny still had his hot-temper.
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Changed line(s) 7,8 (click to see context) from:
[[Characters/TheKarateKidCobraKaiAndAssociates Cobra Kai and Associates]] | [[Characters/TheKarateKidEagleFangAndAssociates Eagle Fang and Associates]] | [[Characters/TheKarateKidMiyagiDoAndAssociates Miyagi-Do and Associates]] | [[Characters/TheKarateKidOtherCharacters Other Characters]]-]]]]]
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[[Characters/TheKarateKidCobraKaiAndAssociates Cobra Kai and Associates]] | [[Characters/TheKarateKidEagleFangAndAssociates Eagle Fang and Associates]] | [[Characters/TheKarateKidMiyagiDoAndAssociates Miyagi-Do and Associates]] Associates]] | [[Characters/TheKarateKidTheLaRussoFamily The [=LaRusso=] Family]] | [[Characters/TheKarateKidOtherCharacters Other Characters]]-]]]]]
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Changed line(s) 211 (click to see context) from:
** Johnny resents Daniel for the water hose stunt he pulled at the Halloween dance in 1984, pointing out to Miguel that he hadn't bothered the guy in weeks. Later on, when Miguel and Daniel talk about the feud and Miguel brings up the water hose incident, Daniel does reluctantly admit that was on him.
to:
** Johnny resents Daniel for the water hose stunt he pulled at the Halloween dance in 1984, pointing out to Miguel that he hadn't bothered the guy in weeks.weeks (though Johnny lied since he and his friends were constantly harassing Daniel). Later on, when Miguel and Daniel talk about the feud and Miguel brings up the water hose incident, Daniel does reluctantly admit that was on him.
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Daniel never did anything to Johnny until after the former discovered the latter had drew the penis on the billboard and this likely convinced Daniel that Johnny was still the same bullying jerk from high school.
Changed line(s) 209 (click to see context) from:
** Additionally, his critique that Daniel can never leave well enough alone is completely accurate. Throughout season one, Daniel goes out of his way to hinder Johnny's efforts to revive Cobra Kai while Johnny was content to let him live his life. It gets worse in season two when Daniel decides to revive Miyagi-Do to combat Cobra Kai's influence in the Valley and creates a RivalDojos scenario that ends [[spoiler:in an all out war between the teens that ends with Sam and Miguel in the hospital.]] In the aftermath, Amanda calls him out on this as well.
to:
** Additionally, his critique that Daniel can never leave well enough alone is completely accurate. Throughout season one, Daniel goes out of his way to hinder Johnny's efforts to revive Cobra Kai while Johnny was content to let him live his life.life (Though it must’ve been because of the defaced billboard which caused Daniel to believe that Johnny was still the same bully he knew him as in high school). It gets worse in season two when Daniel decides to revive Miyagi-Do to combat Cobra Kai's influence in the Valley and creates a RivalDojos scenario that ends [[spoiler:in an all out war between the teens that ends with Sam and Miguel in the hospital.]] In the aftermath, Amanda calls him out on this as well.
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Changed line(s) 5 (click to see context) from:
[[Characters/TheKarateKidDanielLaRusso Daniel [=LaRusso=]]] | '''Johnny Lawrence''' | [[Characters/TheKarateKidJohnKreese John Kreese]] | [[Characters/TheKarateKidRobbyKeene Robby Keene]] | [[Characters/TheKarateKidEliMoskowitz Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz]] | [[Characters/CobraKaiToryNichols Tory Nichols]] | [[Characters/TheKarateKidDemetriAlexopoulos Demetri Alexopoulos]]\\
to:
[[Characters/TheKarateKidDanielLaRusso Daniel [=LaRusso=]]] | '''Johnny Lawrence''' | [[Characters/TheKarateKidJohnKreese John Kreese]] | [[Characters/TheKarateKidTerrySilver Terry Silver]] | [[Characters/TheKarateKidRobbyKeene Robby Keene]] | [[Characters/TheKarateKidEliMoskowitz Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz]] | [[Characters/CobraKaiToryNichols Tory Nichols]] | [[Characters/TheKarateKidDemetriAlexopoulos Demetri Alexopoulos]]\\
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Johnny hasn't really matured actually.
Changed line(s) 221 (click to see context) from:
* {{Manchild}}: Well into middle-age at the start of the series and still stuck in a teenage mentality. While he does mature, he never quite grows out of his fixation on being "badass", even when it does more harm than good.
to:
* {{Manchild}}: Well into middle-age at the start of the series and still stuck in a teenage mentality. While he does mature, he He also never quite grows out of his fixation on being "badass", even when it does more harm than good.
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Changed line(s) 27 (click to see context) from:
* AllForNothing: [[spoiler:All of Johnny's work towards the next All-Valley across seasons 2-4 end up fruitless. Between his students feuding with Miyagi-Do, his whole relationship with Kreese, losing Corba Kai, his students turning on him, having to start a new dojo, and (of course) his never ending feud with Daniel, he is unable to pull it together. Ultimately, all of his current students at the time are knocked out of the tournament before the final round of both divisions. If fact, in an [[{{Irony}} ironic twist of fate]], the winners of the boys' and girls' divisions turn out to be one of his students who left for Miyagi-Do, and one of his former students who was Kreese's student for way longer respectively. Even worse, some of actions near the end of the season only served to alienate Miguel from him]].
to:
* AllForNothing: [[spoiler:All of Johnny's work towards the next All-Valley across seasons 2-4 end up fruitless. Between his students feuding with Miyagi-Do, his whole relationship with Kreese, losing Corba Kai, his students turning on him, having to start a new dojo, and (of course) his never ending feud with Daniel, he is unable to pull it together. Ultimately, all of his current students at the time are knocked out of the tournament before the final round of both divisions. If fact, in an [[{{Irony}} ironic twist of fate]], the winners of the boys' and girls' divisions turn out to be one of his students who left for Miyagi-Do, and one of his former students who was Kreese's student for way longer respectively. Even worse, some of his actions near the end of the season only served to alienate Miguel from him]].
Changed line(s) 65 (click to see context) from:
* BrokenPedestal: By the end of Season 2, he becomes this for [[spoiler:Hawk, Tory, Mitch, and several of the other Cobra Kai students. They blame him for Miguel's hospitalization because Miguel was following his teachings on mercy.]]
to:
* BrokenPedestal: By the end of Season 2, he becomes this for [[spoiler:Hawk, Tory, Mitch, and several of the other Cobra Kai students. They blame him for Miguel's hospitalization because Miguel was following his teachings on mercy.]]]] That being said, it's clear that the problem is with them, not Johnny, as they are scapegoating him so they don't have to [[NeverMyFault admit to themselves that they did anything wrong]]. See RebuiltPedestal for more.
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* FailureHero: Johnny may be the protagonist of ''Cobra Kai'', but his personal life is a mess and over the course of the first four seasons he fails in almost every objective he has. Although he coaches Miguel to victory in the first season's All Valley tournament, this is a PyrrhicVictory as it comes at the cost of turning Cobra Kai into the exact kind of ThugDojo they were in the original films. In Season 2, he lets his rivalry with Daniel get completely out of control, which leads to Miguel being hospitalised and Kreese stealing his dojo. In Season 3, he does succeed in helping Miguel overcome his paralysis, but his relationship with Robby deteriorates to the point that he ends up making a FaceHeelTurn and joining Cobra Kai, and Johnny loses his climactic fight with Kreese and has to be rescued by Daniel. In Season 4, he fails to put aside his differences with Daniel until it's too late, gets the crap beaten out of him by Terry Silver, drives Miguel to run away from home, guides Eagle Fang to a distant third in the All Valley and fails to coach Sam to victory in the final against Tory. However, he does get [[ThrowTheDogABone a bone thrown his way]] when he manages to reconcile with Robby at last.
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* FailureHero: Johnny may be the protagonist of ''Cobra Kai'', but his personal life is a mess and over the course of the first four seasons he fails in almost every objective he has. Although he coaches Miguel to victory in the first season's All Valley tournament, this is a PyrrhicVictory as it comes at the cost of turning Cobra Kai into the exact kind of ThugDojo they were in the original films. In Season 2, he lets his rivalry with Daniel get completely out of control, which leads to Miguel being hospitalised hospitalized and Kreese stealing his dojo. In Season 3, he does succeed in helping Miguel overcome his paralysis, but his relationship with Robby deteriorates to the point that he ends up making a FaceHeelTurn and joining Cobra Kai, and Johnny loses his climactic fight with Kreese and has to be rescued by Daniel. In Season 4, he fails to put aside his differences with Daniel until it's too late, gets the crap beaten out of him by Terry Silver, drives Miguel to run away from home, guides Eagle Fang to a distant third in the All Valley and fails to coach Sam to victory in the final against Tory. However, he does get [[ThrowTheDogABone a bone thrown his way]] when he manages to reconcile with Robby at last.
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* ItsAllAboutMe: Johnny falls into this hard in a lot of the second half of season 4. The worse of it is during the season 4 All-Valley where [[spoiler: he tells Miguel, who was just in tremendous pain from pulling a muscle and didn't want to keep fighting, to go back out there and stick it to Daniel by beating Eli. The fact that he brushed off Miguel also not wanting to fight his friend with "he made his choice" (remember that Eli was also Johnny's student for a long time), only further proves Johnny has completely lost sight of his students and especially Miguel's wellbeing in favor of (once again) his rivalry with Daniel. Unforunatly, Johnny is only snapped out of this by Miguel running away from the All-Valley (and later to Mexico), [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone much to Johnny's regret]]]].
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* DefeatMeansFriendship: Though he doesn't appear again after he gets berated by Kreese for losing at the beginning of ''Part II'', and ''Series/CobraKai'' shows that there's still some bad blood between him and Daniel.
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* DefeatMeansFriendship: Though he doesn't appear again after he gets berated by Kreese for Downplayed. After losing at to Daniel, he shows sportsmanship by personally handing his rival the beginning of ''Part II'', trophy and tells him "You're alright [=LaRusso=], great match." He seems grateful after Mr. Miyagi saves him from Kreese, and Ali confirms that after the tournament the two left each other alone for the rest of their time at school. However, ''Series/CobraKai'' shows that there's still some bad blood between him and Daniel.Daniel, although it's mostly on Johnny's end (at first) as Daniel greets him like an old friend when he sees him at the dealership.
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--> '''Johnny:''' You see that? It doesn't matter if you're a loser, or a nerd, or a freak. All that matters is that you become badass!* DefeatMeansFriendship: Though he doesn't appear again after he gets berated by Kreese for losing at the beginning of ''Part II'', and ''Series/CobraKai'' shows that there's still some bad blood between him and Daniel.
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--> '''Johnny:''' You see that? It doesn't matter if you're a loser, or a nerd, or a freak. All that matters is that you become badass!* badass!
* DefeatMeansFriendship: Though he doesn't appear again after he gets berated by Kreese for losing at the beginning of ''Part II'', and ''Series/CobraKai'' shows that there's still some bad blood between him and Daniel.
* DefeatMeansFriendship: Though he doesn't appear again after he gets berated by Kreese for losing at the beginning of ''Part II'', and ''Series/CobraKai'' shows that there's still some bad blood between him and Daniel.
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* FailureHero: Johnny may be the protagonist of ''Cobra Kai'', but his personal life is a mess and over the course of the first four seasons he fails in almost every objective he has. Although he coaches Miguel to victory in the first season's All Valley tournament, this is a PyrrhicVictory as it comes at the cost of turning Cobra Kai into the exact kind of ThugDojo they were in the original films. In Season 2, he lets his rivalry with Daniel get completely out of control, which leads to Miguel being hospitalised and Kreese stealing his dojo. In Season 3, he does succeed in helping Miguel overcome his paralysis, but his relationship with Robby deteriorates to the point that he ends up making a FaceHeelTurn and joining Cobra Kai, and Johnny loses his climatic fight with Kreese and has to be rescued by Daniel. In Season 4, he fails to put aside his differences with Daniel until it's too late, gets the crap beaten out of him by Terry Silver, drives Miguel to run away from home, guides Eagle Fang to a distant third in the All Valley and fails to coach Sam to victory in the final against Tory. However, he does get [[ThrowTheDogABone a bone thrown his way]] when he manages to reconcile with Robby at last.
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* FailureHero: Johnny may be the protagonist of ''Cobra Kai'', but his personal life is a mess and over the course of the first four seasons he fails in almost every objective he has. Although he coaches Miguel to victory in the first season's All Valley tournament, this is a PyrrhicVictory as it comes at the cost of turning Cobra Kai into the exact kind of ThugDojo they were in the original films. In Season 2, he lets his rivalry with Daniel get completely out of control, which leads to Miguel being hospitalised and Kreese stealing his dojo. In Season 3, he does succeed in helping Miguel overcome his paralysis, but his relationship with Robby deteriorates to the point that he ends up making a FaceHeelTurn and joining Cobra Kai, and Johnny loses his climatic climactic fight with Kreese and has to be rescued by Daniel. In Season 4, he fails to put aside his differences with Daniel until it's too late, gets the crap beaten out of him by Terry Silver, drives Miguel to run away from home, guides Eagle Fang to a distant third in the All Valley and fails to coach Sam to victory in the final against Tory. However, he does get [[ThrowTheDogABone a bone thrown his way]] when he manages to reconcile with Robby at last.
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* FailureHero: Johnny may be the protagonist of ''Cobra Kai'', but his personal life is a mess and over the course of the first four seasons he fails in almost every objective he has. Although he coaches Miguel to victory in the first season's All Valley tournament, this is a PyrrhicVictory as it comes at the cost of turning Cobra Kai into the exact kind of ThugDojo they were in the original films. In Season 2, he lets his rivalry with Daniel get completely out of control, which leads to Miguel being hospitalised and Kreese stealing his dojo. In Season 3, he does succeed in helping Miguel overcome his paralysis, but his relationship with Robby deteriorates to the point that he ends up making a FaceHeelTurn and joining Cobra Kai, and Johnny loses his climatic fight with Kreese and has to be rescued by Daniel. In Season 4, he fails to put aside his differences with Daniel until it's too late, gets the crap beaten out of him by Terry Silver, drives Miguel to run away from home, guides Eagle Fang to a distant third in the All Valley and fails to coach Sam to victory in the final against Tory. However, he does get [[ThrowTheDogABone a bone thrown his way]] when he manages to reconcile with Robby at last.
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[[Characters/TheKarateKid CobraKaiAndAssociates Cobra Kai and Associates]] | [[Characters/TheKarateKid EagleFangAndAssociates Eagle Fang and Associates]] | [[Characters/TheKarateKidMiyagiDoAndAssociates Miyagi-Do and Associates]] | [[Characters/TheKarateKidOtherCharacters Other Characters]]-]]]]]
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Daniel explains to Johnny what Facebook is in season 1
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* {{Flanderization}}: In the show's first season it becomes clear that Johnny is a man who is still living in the 1980s, but by the end of season 2 he is so hopelessly out of touch with the modern world that Daniel has to explain to him what Facebook is.
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* {{Hunk}}: No longer the PrettyBoy he use to be, but apart from some wrinkles (as pointed out by his old friend Bobby), Johnny still has some rugged handsomeness going for him.
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* {{Hunk}}: No longer the PrettyBoy he use to be, but apart from some wrinkles (as as pointed out by his old friend Bobby), Bobby, Johnny still has some rugged handsomeness going for him.him. Funnily enough, several people that have only seen or known Johnny as an adult assumed that [[IWasQuiteALooker he was quite the heartthrob]] (Amanda and Terry Silver explicitly called Johnny a "pretty boy").
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[[caption-width-right:350: ''"You want something, you're going to have to crawl across the floor. Use your damn teeth if you have to."'']]
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[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see him as a teen]] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screen_shot_2021_07_31_at_102853_am.png[softreturn]''"You couldn't leave me well enough alone, could you little twerp! Nah, you had to push it. And now you're gonna pay."'']][[/labelnote]]
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->''"You couldn't leave me well enough alone, could you little twerp! Nah, you had to push it. And now you're gonna pay."''
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[[Characters/CobraKaiDanielLaRusso Daniel [=LaRusso=]]] | '''Johnny Lawrence''' | [[Characters/CobraKaiJohnKreese John Kreese]] | [[Characters/CobraKaiRobbyKeene Robby Keene]] | [[Characters/CobraKaiEliMoskowitz Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz]] | [[Characters/CobraKaiToryNichols Tory Nichols]] | [[Characters/CobraKaiDemetriAlexopoulos Demetri Alexopoulos]]\\
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[[Characters/CobraKaiCobraKaiAndAssociates Cobra Kai and Associates]] | [[Characters/CobraKaiEagleFangAndAssociates Eagle Fang and Associates]] | [[Characters/CobraKaiMiyagiDoAndAssociates Miyagi-Do and Associates]] | [[Characters/CobraKaiOtherCharacters Other Characters]]-]]]]]
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%% Images updated per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1639592914073832300
%% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread.
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[[WMG:[[center:[-''Series/CobraKai'' '''[[Characters/CobraKai Main Character Index]]'''\\
[[Characters/CobraKaiDanielLaRusso Daniel [=LaRusso=]]] | '''Johnny Lawrence''' | [[Characters/CobraKaiJohnKreese John Kreese]] | [[Characters/CobraKaiRobbyKeene Robby Keene]] | [[Characters/CobraKaiEliMoskowitz Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz]] | [[Characters/CobraKaiToryNichols Tory Nichols]] | [[Characters/CobraKaiDemetriAlexopoulos Demetri Alexopoulos]]\\
'''Dojos and Others'''\\
[[Characters/CobraKaiCobraKaiAndAssociates Cobra Kai and Associates]] | [[Characters/CobraKaiEagleFangAndAssociates Eagle Fang and Associates]] | [[Characters/CobraKaiMiyagiDoAndAssociates Miyagi-Do and Associates]] | [[Characters/CobraKaiOtherCharacters Other Characters]]-]]]]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ck_s4_johnny_lawrence.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"You want something, you're going to have to crawl across the floor. Use your damn teeth if you have to."'']]
->'''Played by:''' William Zabka, Owen D. Stone ([[Recap/CobraKaiS1E6Quiver 1979 flashback]]), Thomas Parobek ([[Recap/CobraKaiS4E4Bicephaly Early 1970s flashback]])
->'''Appearances:''' ''Film/TheKarateKid1984'', ''Film/TheKarateKidPartII'', ''Characters/CobraKai''
->''"You couldn't leave me well enough alone, could you little twerp! Nah, you had to push it. And now you're gonna pay."''
->''"I wasn't always the badass sensei that I am today. Just like a cobra, I had to shed my loser skin to find my true power. And you guys will too."''
Ali's ex-boyfriend and Cobra Kai's #1 student, who serves as Daniel's rival of the first movie. 34 years after his defeat against Daniel [=LaRusso=], Johnny's life doesn't seem like it could be worse, but that's all about to change now that he's bringing back Cobra Kai, his beloved dojo.
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----
[[folder:A-F]]
* TheAce: As the two-time winner of the 1982 and 1983 All-Valley Karate Tournaments, he was obviously Cobra Kai's #1 student. Seemed to be Daniel's superior in nearly every way but honor.
* AgeGapRomance: At 51, Johnny is about seventeen years older than Carmen, who is in her mid-thirties. She was either an infant or not even ''born'' during the events of the original movie.
* TheAlcoholic: Johnny apparently kept drinking straight from 1984 to the current day, with it even being clarified that his being so drunk he completely missed Ali's birthday was the reason for their breakup in the original movie. Like smoking, it's TruthInTelevision that people who start in high school often continue. It's played fairly straightforwardly, with even his students acknowledging that Sensei has alcohol issues.
* AllForNothing: [[spoiler:All of Johnny's work towards the next All-Valley across seasons 2-4 end up fruitless. Between his students feuding with Miyagi-Do, his whole relationship with Kreese, losing Corba Kai, his students turning on him, having to start a new dojo, and (of course) his never ending feud with Daniel, he is unable to pull it together. Ultimately, all of his current students at the time are knocked out of the tournament before the final round of both divisions. If fact, in an [[{{Irony}} ironic twist of fate]], the winners of the boys' and girls' divisions turn out to be one of his students who left for Miyagi-Do, and one of his former students who was Kreese's student for way longer respectively. Even worse, some of actions near the end of the season only served to alienate Miguel from him]].
* TheAllegedCar: Further reinforcing his DiscoDan attitudes, Johnny's car has clearly seen better days. To be fair though, the 1991 Pontiac Firebird was a pretty sweet car in its day; a fun street racer known for its speed, handling, cornering, and engine power while also being affordable. It's not hard to see why Johnny is so attached to it.
* AmbiguousDisorder: Johnny's disinterest with school, blatant BookDumb-ness, being LiteralMinded, and problems processing information in non-kinesthetic or spatial ways strongly hint at some kind of undiagnosed learning disorder. The glimpse of a young kid who couldn't make friends or communicate and was constantly fighting and trying to shut the world out suggest he might additionally be on the autism spectrum or have some other undiagnosed problem.
* AmicableExes:
** Johnny reconnects with Ali in Season 3 and despite learning that she was separating from her husband, Johnny chooses not to try and pursue her again and Ali, in turn, encourages Johnny to find his future with Carmen.
** He and Shannon seem to be becoming this in Season 3, though anything would seem more amicable compared to the way they were before.
* AnimalMotif: [[NobleBirdOfPrey Eagles.]] Eagles are known to symbolize courage, strength, and honor, traits that have been consistent with Johnny even when he is at his most brutish and uncouth. Johnny also watches ''Film/IronEagle'' religiously and later christens his new karate doctrine as "Eagle Fang".
* AntiHeroSubstitute: He's like Miyagi in that he mentors young people... but he's also a JerkWithAHeartOfGold.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion:
** He confronts and questions Hawk and Miguel their reasons for using underhanded tactics during the All-Valley Tournament. The two students can only glance at each other, confused, in response.
--->'''Johnny:''' Hawk. Did you attack your opponent when his back was turned?\\
'''Hawk:''' ''[hesitantly]'' ... Yes, Sensei?\\
'''Johnny:''' Diaz. Did you purposely attack your opponent's injury?\\
'''Miguel:''' ''[confidently]'' Yes, Sensei.\\
'''Johnny:''' Think that makes you badass?\\
''[Miguel and Hawk glance at each other in silence]''\\
'''Johnny:''' What's the matter, too tough a question? Maybe you need some help.
** Johnny voices his disapproval over Miguel finishing off a helpless Hawk during the "Red vs. Black" battle at Coyote Creek while also questioning whether or not he wants to revolve his life around Kreese's "no mercy" ideology.
--->'''Johnny:''' What was that? That's not how I taught you to fight.\\
'''Miguel:''' That's what Sensei Kreese taught us. This isn't a tournament, this is real life.\\
'''Johnny:''' Is that how you want to live your life?
* ArrogantKungFuGuy: As a kid but even at his worst, far less so than Kreese
* AscendedExtra: He goes from the franchise's one-off StarterVillain to the main protagonist here.
* TheAtoner: [[spoiler:At the end of Season 3, understanding he screwed up big time by resurrecting Cobra Kai and giving Kreese the opportunity to corrupt a new generation of teenagers, he merges his dojo with Daniel's so their students can win the All-Valley and get rid of the two for good.]]
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: After Johnny has spent most of the series tormented about his failure to be a good dad to Robby, [[spoiler:the Season 4 finale ''finally'' has Robby needing comfort and Johnny able to provide it, without anyone or anything else getting in the way. It's a shame Miguel had to run away to Mexico for the moment to happen]].
* * BeautyIsBad: A more conventionally handsome kid than Daniel-san.
* BerserkButton:
** Anything to do with Daniel [=LaRusso=] serves as this, even before Cobra-Kai makes a comeback.
** Damaging his car is even worse than pushing any of his other buttons as it'll drive him into a rage.
** And [[DirtyCoward using dirty tricks and cheap shots to win a competition]]? He might let it slide ''that'' day, but there ''will'' be hell to pay in the morning.
** Hurting, or even making mention of bringing pain towards [[LikeASonToMe Miguel]] and his family. Kreese's attempts to gaslight him simply stop working because he continues to bring up Miguel.
* BigShutUp: His preference is a loud, abrupt "'''QUIET!'''" that works every single time he uses it.
* BookDumb: Johnny must've forgotten a lot of things from his school years, such as mongooses existing, or he never bothered learning that stuff anyway.
* BreakingTheCycleOfBadParenting: Johnny clearly ''wants'' to do this, but it's not an easy thing to do. With an absent father, a distant, cruel stepfather and Kreese as a father figure, he's had nothing but bad examples. He wants to be a good father to Robby, and sees Miguel as a surrogate son, but constantly muddles through by trial and error, clearly not understanding the best way to be nurturing and supporting, and his lifetime of bad habits and poor coping mechanisms frequently cause him problems. To his credit, he never gives up trying, even while recognizing his own flaws.
* BreakoutCharacter: No doubt the most popular of the Cobra Kai students. Enough to even star in a series that is a distant sequel to the movie.
* BreakTheHaughty:
** Spends the first episode undergoing this. He is fired from his job as a handyman after a misunderstanding with a customer straight out of ''Website/NotAlwaysRight'', he is maced and arrested after trying to stick up for a neighbor who is being beaten up, his stepfather writes him off as a lost cause, his car gets smashed and towed to his old rival Daniel [=LaRusso=]'s auto shop, and then he learns that Daniel's daughter was involved.
** Once his backstory is revealed, you can't help but feel bad for Johnny even in the original films. [[spoiler:He didn't have a father and was forced to cope with an abusive step-dad. He then joined Cobra Kai to escape his abusive life, and thanks to the friends and respect he'd earned, he treated Kreese as the only father he's ever had, much like Daniel and Miyagi]]. You can only imagine how much emotional damage he had to endure after losing the '84 tournament.
* BrokenPedestal: By the end of Season 2, he becomes this for [[spoiler:Hawk, Tory, Mitch, and several of the other Cobra Kai students. They blame him for Miguel's hospitalization because Miguel was following his teachings on mercy.]]
* BroodingBoyGentleGirl: Is the Brooding Boy to Carmen's Gentle Girl when they become a couple in Season 3.
* BrutalHonesty: If Johnny wants to say something, he will say it regardless of how rude or hurtful it will be. At times this out of love, since he wants to see his students do better from his point of view. However, others have pointed out that this approach can just end up pushing people away and so he makes an effort to lessen his bluntness somewhat.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Alcoholic and crass but he is a great sensei and his lessons work. Kreese points out it's a miracle he could train a bunch of outcasts and nerds into All Valley champion material.
* CallingTheOldManOut: Johnny's last visit to his stepfather's has him return money given to him by the latter, now that Cobra Kai is in a financially stable position. Sid claims his stepson will be back for more... only for him to quip that he no longer needs to rely on his stepfather for financial support, and smugly leaves, while Sid is left speechless.
-->'''Johnny:''' I never needed your money. It's just the only thing you had to give. Goodbye, Sid.
* CasanovaWannabe: Downplayed. Johnny still seems to think he's a smooth-talking ladykiller, while a lot of women (particularly younger women) tend to disagree.
-->'''Johnny:''' ''[trying to sound suave]'' ''Hey.''\\
'''Jogger:''' ''[glares at him and jogs off]'' Creep.
* CassandraTruth: In Season 3, he tells Hawk and the other Cobra Kai loyalists that [[ItsAllAboutMe Kreese only sees them as pawns and he doesn't actually give a shit about any of them]]. [[spoiler:By the finale, Hawk realizes he's right.]]
* {{Catchphrase}}: "Badass" and ("Don't be a") "pussy". Also '''''[[BigShutUp "QUIET!"]]'''''
* CharacterDevelopment: Johnny entire arc is about reconciling with the past and learning to live for the present. Restarting Cobra Kai sets him on a path of a having a real and fulfilling career, building new relationships, atoning for past mistakes, and finding inner peace and closure. After regarding Ali as TheOneThatGotAway in the years since the original film and the first two seasons, [[spoiler:Johnny reconnects with her in Season 3 and realizes that, as great as their relationship was, it was in the past and what he really needed was closure. Thus, he departs with her as AmicableExes and chooses to pursue Carmen instead.]]
* ConspiracyTheorist: Johnny believes that it was dinosaurs that built the pyramids, as he commented "I knew it" after finding a fake news website with "proof" of it while surfing the web for the first time.
* CoolCar: Johnny's 3rd generation Pontiac Firebird ''was'' a pretty sweet whip for its time, being relatively affordable and capable of some high performance riding. After it's destroyed, Johnny chooses a more conventionally stylish and modern '09 Dodge Challenger from one of Daniel's trade-ins. Season 2 has him give it an exceptionally badass matte black and gold, Cobra Kai-themed paint job.
* CuttingTheKnot: Fitting the nature of Cobra Kai and his own attitude, Johnny tends to brute force his way through problems when things don’t work out. When first trying to visit Miguel in ICU disguised as a doctor, he realizes quickly that it won’t work and beats his head in until he’s injured enough to be admitted. Similarly, after attempts to beg Sid for money for Miguel’s surgery fail, he just snatches one of Sid’s art pieces to pawn off.
* DareToBeBadass: The ethos of Cobra Kai, and later Eagle Fang; Johnny's goal is to help kids who are unconfident, lost, or weak into becoming badass, gaining outer and inner strength in the process. While this philosophy unintentionally turns them into the violent thugs he and his friends once were, he later makes efforts to instill the philosophy of strength and awesomeness without resorting to bullying others.
--> '''Johnny:''' You see that? It doesn't matter if you're a loser, or a nerd, or a freak. All that matters is that you become badass!* DefeatMeansFriendship: Though he doesn't appear again after he gets berated by Kreese for losing at the beginning of ''Part II'', and ''Series/CobraKai'' shows that there's still some bad blood between him and Daniel.
* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler:By the end of Season 2, Miguel is hospitalized, Carmen blames him for Miguel's injuries and never wants to see him again, and he's lost his dojo and his students to John Kreese, leaving him all alone and with nothing else to do but to [[DrowningMySorrows drown his sorrows in alcohol by the beachside.]] However, things are looking up for him in the next season.]]
** Similarly, at the end of season 4 [[spoiler: his dojo is hanging by a thread, Cobra Kai is poised to take over the valley, and Miguel runs away to try and track down his birth father. The only thing keeping him from falling completely in despair is Robby showing up.]]
* {{Determinator}}: When he's committed or inspired, Johnny doesn't let '''''anything''''' keep him down. His revival of Cobra Kai and getting Miguel walk again are just two examples that Johnny has achieved due to largely out of his own perseverance. It's in fact one of his life's virtues, which he best gets across when he visit Miguel again following his surgery.
-->'''Johnny:''' 'Never', 'can't', those are just words, they're meaningless! It's time for you to get out of that bed and do something. You're not a kid anymore. The world isn't just gonna hand it to you. You want something, you're gonna have to crawl across the floor. Use your damn teeth if you have to!
* DirtyCoward: Defied. The day after the All-Valley Tournament, he lectures his entire dojo on what Cobra Kai really stands for, and has zero tolerance whatsoever for using underhanded tactics (which he dismissively labels "pussy moves") to defeat opponents unable to fight back.
-->'''Johnny:''' Cobra Kai is about being badass. And the baddest badass is the one who beats his opponent when he's at his strongest. ''Not'' when his back is turned. ''Not'' when he's injured. That means no more cheating. No more fighting dirty. From here on out, those are pussy moves, and you don't wanna be pussies, do ya?
* DisappearedDad:
** Johnny says he never knew his dad (and apparently never discussed it with Laura). Sid makes a couple of remarks to the effect of "at least I stuck around".
** It's later revealed in Season 4 [[spoiler: that wasn't entirely the case. Johnny's dad left when he was in kindergarten, with a young Johnny keeping a box of his things, including a period-accurate [[GenerationXerox Coors beer can]]. Johnny does imply to Miguel that he ''could'' track him down, but that's all the information we get]].
** Played with Robby. He's something of an estranged GenerationXerox case, despite having Robby's picture on the fridge and keeping his drawings, but at least Robby and Shannon know where to find him. See MyGreatestFailure.
* DiscoDan:
** Johnny is stuck in an 80s stasis and still drives an old Pontiac Firebird, listens only to "hair metal" bands, ''prints'' flyers for his dojo in the same style as the original Cobra Kai, and repeatedly watches ultra-80s classic ''Film/IronEagle'' as his go-to movie of choice.
** The comic spin-off has a RunningGag of Johnny trying to use an 80s based metaphor to explain something or motivate his students, only for it to flop due to them being unaware of the context.
** He also shows a distressing ignorance of social media, seemingly preferring to use a flip phone and doesn't have a Website/{{Facebook}} profile (not extremely unusual by itself, but he also doesn't even know what it ''is'' until Daniel shows him).
--->'''Johnny:''' What's a Facebook?\\
'''Daniel:''' Wow. Really, Johnny?
*** Although he ended up getting a old Windows laptop and later upgrading to a smartphone (until he throws it out in rage at the beach in S2 finale) and also creating a Facebook account for the first time, he still has some trouble with the Internet and that despite being wireless, the laptop still needs to be plugged in to charge the battery.
** Overall, while major life-events have clearly occurred for him (having a son) it’s clear that TheEighties are a familiar bubble he is unwilling (or perhaps unable) to break out of.
** In another episode, Johnny has an EroticDream about Carmen where she mimics Tawny Kaitain from the music video for "Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake.
** A part of his CharacterDevelopment is learning to leave his familiar [[DiscoDan Eighties bubble]] to live in the present and look to the future.
* DrillSergeantNasty: Like Kreese, Johnny adopts this style for training his own students, before eventually shifting to a bit softer teaching method.
* DrinkBasedCharacterization: Is rarely seen drinking anything but a Coors Banquet, an inexpensive American beer that matches Johnny's blue-collar lifestyle and {{Eagleland}} tendencies to a T. Best shown in "Pulpo" where Daniel, Carmen, and Amanda all order fancier cocktails and he sticks with the Coors, sticking out like a sore thumb.
* DrowningMySorrows: Comes with being TheAlcoholic. Some notable moments include [[spoiler:the aftermath after bringing an injured Miguel back to his angered mother, Johnny's reaction to his son being a student of Daniel, and the last moment of Season 1. His worst comes in Season 2 after he's unable to locate Robby and finds out the boy is living with the [=LaRussos=]. Carmen has to help him inside and get him sobered up.]]
** Happens again in Season 4 after [[spoiler: Terry Silver lures him to the old Cobra Kai building and kicks the shit out of him there. Miguel later finds him at his apartment on the floor, completely plastered and surrounded by beer cans, having even pissed himself.]]
* DudeWheresMyRespect: An undercurrent of Johnny's resentment towards Daniel comes down to the fact that Johnny's entire legacy in Karate ultimately got defined by his narrow defeat at the hand of Daniel. It didn't matter that he was a former Two-Time champion himself, [[WrittenByTheWinners Cobra Kai became known as thugs and cheaters]] and since Johnny was effectively TheFace of the dojo, his previous accomplishments got downplayed. Daniel finally tried to make right by this at the tail end of Season 4 by having Johnny publicly recognized as a Two-Time Champion as well.
* DumbBlonde: He's a reckless manchild who's ignorant to modern times and believes karate is American, a mongoose is not an animal and eagles have fangs.
* {{Eagleland}}: A mild Type B, being crude and boorish, but still a JerkWithAHeartOfGold. Besides being an 80s DiscoDan, Johnny near-exclusively drinks Coors brews, drives American muscle cars, and assumed Miguel's family were illegal immigrants. It extends to his practice of karate, which he thinks of as American and superior to "foreign" arts like UsefulNotes/BrazilianJiuJitsu and UsefulNotes/{{Taekwondo}}. Though he occasionally falls into type A as he instills positive American qualities in his students like personal empowerment, anti-victimhood, standing up for yourself, confidence, persistence, and passion. This is symbolized by the American flag on his wall in the Cobra Kai dojo.
* EccentricMentor: The sheer ''depth'' of his DiscoDan tendencies, BookDumb ignorance, and TestosteronePoisoning, all while drinking enough booze he just qualifies as a FunctionalAddict, provides a significant amount of comedy to the series, with his students sometimes pulling double duty as the CloudcuckoolandersMinder... but in spite of all of that, Johnny is a ''damn good sensei.''
* EskimosArentReal:
** Throws Miguel's inhaler against the wall after he tells him he has asthma, declaring that made up problems such as asthma and peanut allergies and the like don't exist in Cobra Kai.
** He names [[spoiler: his new Karate school]] Eagle Fang[[labelnote:*]]due to eagles being able to kill snakes[[/labelnote]] because he believes that mongooses are a fictional animal.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Middle-aged Johnny's first onscreen appearance in the series is him waking up in the morning [[TheAlcoholic visibly hungover and takes a sip of some stale beer]] (he spits out some before finishing the bottle anyway). When Miguel introduces himself as his new neighbor, [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero Johnny nonchalantly assumes him to be an immigrant]]. Johnny then drives to work in his vintage but shoddy muscle car while [[DiscoDan listening to 80s hair metal]].
* EveryoneHasStandards:
** It's hinted in the first film (and outright confirmed in ''Series/CobraKai'') that while Johnny is aggressive and competitive, he doesn't like using dirty tactics in tournament fights and prefers fighting fair. When Kreese orders Johnny to target Daniel's wounded knee by performing a leg sweep, Johnny appears shocked that he's being ordered to do something so dishonorable (even though leg sweeping is a perfectly legal move in competitive Karate). Presumably, this is due to the fact he's taking advantage of an injury which Kreese, himself, ordered inflicted.
** Since Johnny's trying to be a better person, he doesn't quite qualify for "evil", and either way his reaction to Aisha testifying what cyberbullying is like fills him with disgust; at least when ''he'' was a bully, [[DoWrongRight he always did it to his victim's face instead of hiding behind a screen like a coward.]]
** PlayedForLaughs when he teaches the Cobra Strike to Miguel and mentions that if he hits the throat he can severely damage someone's trachea. It's worth noting he was still preaching no mercy but even back then he doesn't want Miguel to kill his bullies.
--->'''Johnny:''' [[LampshadeHanging Obviously, that's only for extreme situations.]]
** It's also shown that while he sees nothing wrong about guys harassing girls until they agree to go on a date, he also believes that if a girl doesn't want to do anything physical then the guy should back off.
** When he and Carmen coincidentally end up at the same restaurant on separate dates, he overhears Carmen's date on a phone call to a friend, telling said friend that he intends to just get Carmen into bed and sleep with her a few times before dumping her. This enrages Johnny to the point of beating up Carmen's date and telling him to never go near her again.
** It is clear from both his actions during and right after the tournament to his dressing down of Miguel and Hawk that he does not approve of fighting dirty, calling cheap shots "pussy moves". He makes clear to Miguel afterwards that there's a big difference between showing no mercy in a fight and showing no honor outside of it.
** He is disgusted to learn that one of his students vandalized the Miyagi-Do dojo and he puts all the students through vigorous conditioning drills to make the culprit confess.
** While he may have some [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero ignorant and insensitive assumptions about certain nationalities]] such as assuming Miguel was an immigrant when they first met, Johnny is not a racist. When he considers naming his new dojo ‘Kobra Kai Karate’ (‘Triple K’), Miguel points out its unfortunate implications to a [[TheKlan certain political group]] and he wisely dismisses this idea.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Johnny's not a bad man, per se, but is certainly rough hewn and insensitive, with more than a few bad habits. He resents all of his past father figures (with good reasons), but still clearly cares deeply about his mother, even years after her death.
* FatalFlaw: Johnny's [[PoorJudgeOfCharacter blind spot when it comes to Kreese]] ends up being the catalyst to all major issues that occur in the second season. Despite everything that happens, Johnny still sees Kreese as a father-figure and projects his own desire to become a better person onto him. This is despite literally ''everyone'' telling Johnny [[DevilInPlainSight what an awful idea letting Kreese teach again is]]. Despite his own concerns with Kreese's teaching style, he continues to allow Kreese to teach and influence his students unchecked. This builds to the point where Kreese's Cobra Kai becomes the GangOfBullies that Daniel kept accusing them of being and Johnny wanted to avoid them becoming.
** Jealousy, plain and simple. His first scene in the first movie shows him planning to turn himself around and fly straight, immediately followed by him seeing Daniel with Ali, causing him to pick a fight, which was the catalyst for the entire film's plot (and thus influencing the rest of his life). A lot of his worst tendencies in Cobra Kai come out of a result of jealousy. In Season 4 [[spoiler:it's part of the reason the dojo merger blows up as he can't stand Daniel getting closer to Miguel and this ends up preventing the two from beating Cobra Kai at the All Valley tournament.]]
* AFatherToHisMen: As harsh as his training methods are, his speech to the All-Valley Tournament committee and behavior during the tournament itself prove that he does genuinely care about his students and wants them to succeed and takes pride in seeing them grow and takes his role as a mentor very seriously. [[spoiler:It's why several of the current and former Cobra Kai students decide to join his new dojo in Season 3.]]
* TheFettered: He advocates for striking first as part of the Cobra Kai philosophy, but abhors utilizing underhanded tactics to gain the upper hand against a disadvantaged opponent. [[spoiler:He goes further in this once he forms his "Eagle Fang" school, where he adds that one is to not be a bully (but still be badass) and to never start the fight.]]
* {{Flanderization}}: In the show's first season it becomes clear that Johnny is a man who is still living in the 1980s, but by the end of season 2 he is so hopelessly out of touch with the modern world that Daniel has to explain to him what Facebook is.
* {{Foil}}: Despite their similarities in their love of karate and {{Determinator}} attitudes, Daniel and Johnny's personalities, upbringings and lives since they left high school make them as different as night and day.
** Both were raised by single mothers, having lost their own fathers at a young age (Daniel's father died, Johnny's abandoned him and his mother). They both turned to karate and found a mentor and father figure there, and both of those mentors had a huge and lasting impact on their lives and psychological development. How they ended up says a lot about the impact those mentors had.
** Johnny was a rich kid growing up due to his wealthy stepfather while Daniel had been a poor kid whose mother had to work several jobs. Ironically, [[HourglassPlot these roles are reversed]] for them as adults, as Daniel grows up to become a rich and successful owner of a successful car dealership (which is number 1 in the Valley) and lives in a big house while Johnny now lives in a run-down apartment in Reseda and [[GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity bounces between various menial jobs]] before becoming a sensei.
** Johnny has has gotten in trouble with the law multiple times and has ended up in jail while Daniel has never had any law trouble and never was in jail.
** Though both dated Ali Mills in the past and have had several relationships since, Johnny's failure to move on from [[TheOneThatGotAway Ali]] has ruined all of his relationships until he gets together with Carmen. Daniel, on the other hand, has been HappilyMarried to Amanda for many years. Johnny has neglected his son Robby his whole life, leaving him to be raised by his mother, Shannon, as a single parent, while Daniel has been around for Samantha and Anthony their whole lives and is a very devoted father to them in a traditional, stable family.
** Johnny is completely stuck in TheEighties and ignorant of modern culture, while Daniel has done a much better job of keeping up with the times, being a huge fan of ''Series/GameOfThrones'' and expressing shock at [[HopelessWithTech Johnny]] not knowing what Website/{{Facebook}} is.
** [[SnobsVsSlobs Daniel is a polite and cultured man, while Johnny is a rude, boorish slob]]. This is demonstrated through their [[DrinkBasedCharacterization drink orders]] when they talk at the bar in "[[Recap/CobraKaiS1E9DifferentButSame Different but Same]]". Daniel orders a fancy Ketel Martini, while Johnny orders a Coors Banquet, an inexpensive American beer.
* ForgivenButNotForgotten: Enforced by Daniel. Johnny approaches Robby after the finals of the All Valley Tournament and apologizes to him for Miguel using dirty tricks to win Cobra Kai the tournament. Robby, who has already been imparted enough forgiveness from Daniel by then, calmly lets the issue slide and departs without further animosity at that moment. However, the beginning of Season 2 shows that Robby is still angry at Johnny and is still working on forgiving him. Eventually, their relationship improves [[spoiler:until Robby critically injures Miguel, serves time in juvie for it, and joins Kreese's Cobra Kai since he no longer trusts Daniel and Johnny.]]
* FreudianExcuse: The show reveals that Johnny wasn't just some spoiled rich kid, but rather an emotionally abused youth. He was bullied at home by a cruel stepfather, and Kreese's Cobra Kai dojo was the only place he found any kind of acceptance and mentorship, as twisted as it may have been.
* FunctionalAddict: Pretty much a textbook example. After more than 30 years of seemingly constant drinking, he does it so he won't go into withdrawal. His sky-high alcohol tolerance means a drink or two doesn't affect him nearly the way a more casual drinker would, which is how he manages to stay functional enough to teach karate and drive competently (mostly). He still has a few major breakdowns and ends up in completely shitfaced TheAlcoholic territory, though.
* FutureLoser: Johnny's life hit the skids after high school. He's no longer rich (the money belonged to his stepdad and they don't really talk anymore), he performs odd jobs as a handyman and he's mostly stuck in the past.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:G-N]]
* GenderedInsult: He has no problem deliberately addressing guys with terminology that refers to the opposite sex. He also seems visibly disgusted at the very concept of "gendered insults". "Pussy" is basically his students' catchphrase, thanks to him.
-->'''Johnny:''' Striking first is about being aggressive. Right? If you're not aggressive, then you're being a pussy. You don't want to be a pussy; you want to have balls.\\
'''Miguel:''' Don't you think you're doing a lot of genderizing?\\
'''Johnny:''' ...What?\\
'''Miguel:''' Oh, uh, sorry. Don't you think you're doing a lot of genderizing, Sensei?\\
'''Johnny:''' No, what the hell are you talking about?\\
'''Miguel:''' Oh, uh, my guidance counselor says that certain words perpetuate the sexist world view that can trigger--\\
'''Johnny:''' QUIET! From now on, you won't listen to your guidance counselor. You're going to listen to me. Is that understood?\\
'''Miguel:''' Uh, yes, Sensei.\\
'''Johnny:''' Good. Now stop yapping like a little girl and give me fifty push-ups on your knuckles.
* GenerationXerox: Zigzagged.
** For the first half of Season 1, he's this to Mr. Miyagi, being the maintenance man turned unorthodox karate teacher to a bullied youth (granted Johnny is a more jaded and cynical version of Miyagi).
** By the second half of Season 1, after Cobra Kai starts gaining more students, Johnny becomes one to Kreese, a SenseiForScoundrels, despite his best attempts to avoid this. This bit in particular is zigzagged, because unlike Kreese, he isn't large and intimidating or conspicuously malevolent looking. It doesn't help that Kreese was in his prime while Johnny is just over 50 and beset with all the physical problems of aging (along with his years if not decades of copious alcohol consumption), and he hasn't practiced his art in decades due to real life getting in the way. Also, Johnny has more comedic moments due to his lack of tech-savviness and being at least twenty years out of date. Amusingly, Johnny's attempts to talk tough sound like he's channeling his whiny teenage voice.
* GlobalIgnorance: Despite being a sensei, he thinks karate comes from America. He even advertises it as such to prospective students.
-->'''Johnny:''' All this new-age crap, like jiu-jitsu, taekwondo, they're all just cheap knockoffs of karate.
* GoodCounterpart: To John Kreese. Two Johns who are practitioners and teachers of Tang Soo Do (being senseis of Cobra Kai). Both had rough childhoods before being taught (and eventually betrayed) by an evil mentor (Kreese from Captain Turner, Johnny from Kreese himself); as such, both eventually fight their evil mentors during the climax of Season 3. Both had it rough after their defeat from Mr. Miyagi and Daniel [=LaRusso=], and by Season 4, both happen to be their poorer counterparts of their co-senseis (Johnny to Daniel, Kreese to Terry Silver). But while Johnny is all about turning bullied students into becoming better versions of themselves and teaching them how to be "badass" (but in a more merciful way), Kreese is all about recruiting and indoctrinating bullies into worse versions of themselves and showing no mercy by all means.
* GoodIsNotNice: Johnny is earnestly trying to do better with his life, he genuinely cares for his students, and he loves his son. Doesn't mean he'll be particularly gentle or polite about any of those things.
* GoodParents: Becomes this in Season 3, [[spoiler:just not to Robby. He helps Miguel recover from his injury and supports him every step of the way. He becomes a great ParentalSubstitute to Miguel, but his relationship with Robby is still a mess, as he makes several critical blunders that lead to Robby joining Cobra Kai.]]
* GracefulLoser: After losing to Daniel in the tournament, he accepts his loss fairly calmly and willingly hands him the trophy.
-->'''Johnny''': You're alright, [=LaRusso=]. Good match!
* GrumpyBear: He starts off being an abrasive, bitter curmudgeon who was a JadedWashout envious of Daniel's success and living in squalor but later becomes a more easygoing and more likable person thanks to Miguel.
* HairTriggerTemper: Prone to anger and violence, Johnny is highly aggressive when he feels provoked especially with Daniel and Kreese.
* HatesTheirParent: He holds his stepfather, Sid, in contempt because of his emotional abuse towards him since childhood.
* TheHeavy: While he's the one who antagonizes and bullies Daniel, it's mostly because of Kreese and Cobra Kai's influence. As Mr. Miyagi explains, the teacher's guidance is ultimately responsible for the student's actions and the later films make it clear Kreese is the true BigBad.
* HeroicBSOD: At the end of Season 2, after his son injures Miguel in the school brawl, all he can do is get in an elevator with Daniel and share a quiet BSOD.
* HiddenDepths:
** In his very first scene, he turns down Tommy's offer of a beer because he wants to be ready for the first day of school the next morning.
** We never see him study or practice any kind of religion, but he knows enough about Christianity such that he correctly reminds Bobby that one of the core principles of the faith is showing forgiveness towards others for their ''past'' misdeeds. Unfortunately for Johnny, this doubles as a HorribleJudgeOfCharacter moment, since Kreese hasn't changed.
* HiddenHeartOfGold: Johnny [[GracefulLoser takes his loss against Daniel in the tournament with dignity]] and even presents him with the trophy while telling him it was a good match. Also earlier, when ordered by Kreese to use cheap shots and dirty tactics to defeat Daniel, Johnny is genuinely appalled.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Him putting his faith in his former Cobra Kai sensei ultimately becomes his own undoing, for [[spoiler:Kreese swipes control of the Cobra Kai dojo along with the loyalty of eight of his students, following the events of the school brawl]].
* HopelessWithTech: Johnny has never owned a computer before, and after buying one for the first time he is incapable of even turning it on without help. He eventually uses a combination of an ''[[ParodiesForDummies Internet for Dummies]]'' book and calling the pawnshop owner whom he bought the laptop from for help.
** He even upgrades from a flip phone to an Android smartphone, although he is still frustrated with it due to his smartphone beeping unnecessary alerts (such as software updates and import contacts). He would later discard it by throwing it at the beach in Season 2 finale.
** Season 3 has him think his laptop is broken after its battery ran out, thinking that it being wireless meant he didn't have to plug it into a wall socket.
* {{Hunk}}: No longer the PrettyBoy he use to be, but apart from some wrinkles (as pointed out by his old friend Bobby), Johnny still has some rugged handsomeness going for him.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Johnny is a hypocrite on multiple occasions:
** Johnny was angry about Daniel being a father to his son when Johnny constantly neglected him his whole life Johnny angrily pees on the [=LaRusso=] license plate of his car. It’s huge hypocrisy since Johnny pays more attention to Miguel and feels as if it's different.
** He tells Daniel to get his house in order when Johnny didn't even take care of his family. It's Daniel who's taking care of Johnny's family by paying for Shannon's rehab and paying for Robby's lawyer. For goodness' sake, Johnny is a grown adult who still relies on his stepfather’s money!
* HypocriteHasAPoint: Johnny tells Daniel to get his house in order after he mentions Kyler being on good terms with his daughter. While Johnny's own family situation isn't that much better, he's not wrong for pointing out that Kyler isn't the type of guy Sam thinks he is (he knows Kyler as a bully, and at this point, Kyler is also putting on an act for the sake of getting into Sam's pants).
-->'''Daniel:''' Just stay away from my daughter's friends.\\
'''Johnny:''' Your daughter's friends? Yeah, that makes sense. Nice company she keeps.\\
'''Daniel:''' What the hell is that supposed to mean?\\
'''Johnny:''' It means that those friends of hers were wailing on a kid half their size. Now, maybe you don't know your daughter as well as you think you do. Get your house in order, [=LaRusso=].
* ICouldaBeenAContender: His constant reminiscing of his GloryDays as the Valley's best karateka (and well on his way for state or even national recognition) strongly implies he feels this.
* IgnoredEpiphany: In his first scene, Johnny declares that he's leaving behind his degenerate behaviour and turning over a new leaf as he starts his senior year. Moments later, he sees Daniel and Ali together, his GreenEyedMonster takes over and he completely forgets about this vow for the rest of the movie.
* InadequateInheritor:
** Inverted, tragically. While Johnny is trying to recreate Cobra Kai to be a better organization and philosophy than it was under Kreese, he inadvertently ends up not only recreating its original ethos as a bullying haven, but his emphasis on CombatPragmatist thinking leads his star pupil to be even more ruthless than he was in his heyday. [[spoiler:Kreese even returns to congratulate him on such an accomplishment.]]
** However, it's also inverted in that, from a pure technical standpoint, Johnny is actually a better karate instructor than Kreese is. Johnny was able to turn his students from a RagtagBunchOfMisfits with little to no athletic ability into them being formidable fighters strictly through his instruction and training methods which eventually helped Cobra Kai into being the most outstanding karate dojo in the Valley despite it being forgotten for decades. Kreese, on the other hand, just resorts to bringing in a bunch of established athletes and teach them karate moves, [[spoiler:and several of them wind up losing to Johnny's students in the Season 3 brawl.]]
* InnocentlyInsensitive: When Johnny questions Eli if he's one of those "challenged kids", the latter comments that he might be on the (autism) spectrum, according to his doctor. Unfamiliar with neurological conditions, Johnny simply tells Eli to "get off it."
-->'''Eli:''' My doctor said I could be on the spectrum.\\
'''Johnny:''' I don't know what that is, but get off it, pronto.
* InsaneTrollLogic: He lambastes Aisha's tormentors for being a "bunch of pussies" for bullying her behind a screen, [[DoWrongRight while at the same time upholding face-to-face bullying as honorable.]]
-->''"Back in my day, if you wanted to tease someone, you did it to their face. There was honor, respect. These geeks hiding behind their computers -- what a bunch of spineless losers."''
* InternalReformist: On top of bettering himself as a person, Johnny works to change Cobra Kai's ways for the better such that they don't adhere to the "no mercy" mindset.
-->'''Johnny:''' Cobra Kai needs to change. What you taught didn't work back then and it doesn't work now.\\
'''Kreese:''' Well, whaddya want to change it to? Something nice and snuggly like a blanket?\\
'''Johnny:''' No. Cobra Kai will always be badass. But there's a difference between no mercy and no honor.
* JadedWashout: A former teen karate champion now a middle-aged down-on-his-luck handyman living by paycheck.
* {{Jerkass}}: He's an arrogant bully who enjoys lording his toughness over other people.
* JerkJock: A much more popular, better looking, and tougher kid than Daniel-san.
* JerkassHasAPoint: Despite being a jerk occasionally, he is often times right in his accusations, criticisms and observations.
** In regards to his fight at the strip mall, he tells Daniel, "I didn't beat up any teenagers. I kicked the shit out of a bunch of assholes who deserved it." He is not wrong; Kyler and his friends were assaulting Miguel, a kid half their size, over [[DisproportionateRetribution Miguel accidentally blowing their cover]], and they started a fight with ''Johnny'' when he tried to intervene. Johnny is also right to tell Daniel that he should keep an eye on who his daughter is hanging out with and that he is not as knowledgeable about his daughter's activities as he thinks he is.
** As harsh of an instructor as he is, and at times quite degrading, his methods are effective at teaching. He is absolutely right when he says fair fights don't exist in a street fight. In the episode, "Quiver", when Miguel [[WhatTheHellHero calls him out]] for insulting his new students. Johnny is later proven correct that even though many of them [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere quit due to his bullying]], it's shown to be effective at weeding the weaker ones out. In the same episode, Demetri tries telling Johnny that his harsh insults are socially unacceptable, only to have Johnny point out that some people don't give a damn about what society says is or isn't okay to do; when Demetri keeps up with the snark, Johnny proves his point by getting in the the kid's face and putting him on the floor.
** When he confronts Daniel, while he might be wrong about Louie and his friends having been ordered by Daniel to wreck his car, he's not wrong about the potential consequences of their impulsive acts; lighting a car on fire is likely to cause the fire to spread, especially having been carelessly splashed with gasoline. It wouldn't have taken much for the flames to travel to a building.
** Additionally, his critique that Daniel can never leave well enough alone is completely accurate. Throughout season one, Daniel goes out of his way to hinder Johnny's efforts to revive Cobra Kai while Johnny was content to let him live his life. It gets worse in season two when Daniel decides to revive Miyagi-Do to combat Cobra Kai's influence in the Valley and creates a RivalDojos scenario that ends [[spoiler:in an all out war between the teens that ends with Sam and Miguel in the hospital.]] In the aftermath, Amanda calls him out on this as well.
** While he himself is a deadbeat dad, when Johnny calls out Shannon on being a crappy parent as well, he is correct that her neglect of Robby plays a direct role in his turn to drugs, crime and general delinquency.
** Johnny resents Daniel for the water hose stunt he pulled at the Halloween dance in 1984, pointing out to Miguel that he hadn't bothered the guy in weeks. Later on, when Miguel and Daniel talk about the feud and Miguel brings up the water hose incident, Daniel does reluctantly admit that was on him.
** He's right that Sam and Demetri's sparring match isn't very productive training if the two of them are just going to walk in a circle and keep waiting for the other to throw the first punch. Their tournament opponents won't be nearly as patient and they need to practice blocking and striking.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He's a rude and crude ManChild, but he's trying to become a better person and is honestly trying to help his students.
* KnowWhenToFoldEm: In a deleted scene, Johnny nearly gets in a physical altercation with a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructor after trying to poach his students. He calls it off when a police car shows up so he won't violate his probation.
* LaughablyEvil: [[DownplayedTrope Although he’s not evil]], Johnny’s blunt insensitivity and crudeness lead to some of the funniest moments in the series.
* LethalChef: Johnny's dedication to manliness unfortunately means he's inexperienced in "womanly" pursuits like cooking, with comically unappetizing results.
* LikeParentLikeSpouse: His mother and his ex-girlfriend look so much alike they could be related. Shannon even seems to share some traits with Johnny's mother, in wanting to find a man to take care of her, but the similarities end with their looks and that driving factor.
* LiteralMinded: Not usually, but when Miguel tells him to fight the ban against Cobra Kai from the All Valley Tournament, Johnny gets in his head to head down to the committee and beat them up.
* LittleNo: Shown silently mouthing this and shaking his head when Miguel grabs Robby's leg and prepares to target Robby's shoulder again during the tournament, cementing Johnny's failure as a mentor and father figure to both boys.
* LowerClassLout: He starts the series as an alcoholic divorced handyman and quickly becomes an alcoholic divorced ''ex''-handyman.
* {{Manchild}}: Well into middle-age at the start of the series and still stuck in a teenage mentality. While he does mature, he never quite grows out of his fixation on being "badass", even when it does more harm than good.
* ManlyManAndSensitiveGuy: While both are skilled karate masters, Johnny is the manly man to Daniel's sensitive guy.
* ManlyTears: If you thought [[spoiler:a hospitalized Miguel]] wasn't enough, Johnny listens to a voicemail he missed from Miguel requesting his help, and is unable to hold back his tears.
* MartialArtsHeadband: He wears his black headband from ''Film/TheKarateKid1984'' again when he restarts Cobra-Kai. He reveals that it was actually a gift from Ali.
* TheMentor: An abrasive and crass one, but he still has the best intentions and his advice is more often than not actually very good.
* MirrorCharacter: Despite their [[{{Foil}} many differences]], Johnny and Daniel are revealed to have had very similar upbringings. Both lost their fathers at a young age, both turned to their karate senseis as a new father figure, and both considered Ali Mills to be their FirstLove. They also both consider high school to be their GloryDays, listen to 80's music, and constantly bring up old karate triumphs. Every time they talk, it becomes clear they have a lot in common, right up until circumstances put them [[IgnoredEpiphany back at each others' throats]]. Season 3 has Ali return, and she [[NotSoDifferentRemark blatantly tells Johnny and Daniel they're more similar to one another than they care to admit]], and that they see parts of themselves in each other [[ShadowArchetype that they don't like]].
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone:
** Johnny slowly starts to go through this during the tournament, seeing his students repeat his mistakes when he was under Kreese's tutelage, and even at one point sadly stares at a picture of Kreese, realizing their parallels. It doesn't get any better when the first season ends with [[spoiler:Kreese's return]].
** [[spoiler:Shares this with Daniel at the end of Season 2 due to the school brawl.]]
** [[spoiler:Johnny also realizes that bringing back Cobra Kai was a serious mistake, so he decides to branch away into his own dojo, the Eagle Fang. He also plans to rectify his mistake by joining his dojo with Daniel’s in order to shut down Cobra Kai for good.]]
** [[spoiler:After Miguel doesn't come back to finish his fight with Hawk and disapers in the season 4 finale, Johnny realizes that it's his fault for disregaurding what Miguel wants all season.]]
* MyGreatestFailure: He gets choked up telling Miguel that he missed Robby's birth, and promises he'll always be there for him. Miguel's hospitalization after Season 2 then sends him straight into a HeroicBSOD.
--> '''Johnny:''' I failed my kid on his first day in this world.
* MyGreatestSecondChance: Johnny's mentoring of Miguel is in his eyes his way of making up for failing Robby.
* NecessaryFail: Johnny's loss to Vidal in the 1981 tournament encouraged him to work harder so that he would never lose again.
* NeverMyFault: In the first season, Johnny recounts the events of the original film, and in both instances he downplays his own aggression towards Daniel to make himself out to have been the victim and Daniel the antagonist. [[spoiler:He gets over this attitude when Ali reunites with both men and forces them to acknowledge that they both bear some responsibility for what happened.]]
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:Letting Kreese teach at Cobra Kai again ruins his efforts to encourage his students to be less violent and aggressive and eventually leads to him losing both them and the dojo to Kreese.]]
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Upon hearing how bad Kreese's life has gotten he forgives him for the past and tries to help him back on his feet. Turns out Kreese was manipulating Johnny to steal his dojo from under him.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:O-Y]]
* OddFriendship: He seems to get along with Daniel's wife Amanda well, though he obviously disliked her initially since he said Daniel's whole family is rotten to the core and she obviously initially disliked him too and considered him an irritant because of how he was affecting her husband ... she even called Johnny an asshole. Whenever they hang out she (with the help of another woman) tend to ease the tension between him and her husband. In the third season she even hugs Johnny after a night of fun with him, Daniel and Ali.
* OfficialCouple: [[spoiler: After the ambiguity of their relationship status in the previous season, in Season 4, after a few misunderstandings, Johnny finally stops beating around the bush and confesses his love for Carmen, which she reciprocates. As of Episode 3, they're properly together.]]
* OnlyKnownByHisNickname: He does introduce himself formally to the All-Valley board as "John". Other than that, his name may as well really be Johnny.
* OpenMouthInsertFoot: His incredible lack of tact is probably second to [[TheCorruptor Kreese]], the thing that causes the most problems in his life.
* PetTheDog: Often bully Characters are portrayed as treating their lackeys with contempt but Johnny appears to genuinely consider the group his friends and is always respectful to them.
* PapaWolf: For Miguel, and Robby, despite the latter's dislike of him. [[spoiler:When he finds Miguel battered and bloodied from the fight at the [=LaRusso=] home, Johnny immediately heads off to confront Kreese. When he finds Robby wearing a Cobra Kai gi, he promptly starts wailing on his old sensei.]] He grows to become this for his students as a whole; messing with any of them when he's around is NOT a good idea. [[spoiler: This even extends to the Miyagi-Do students once he and Daniel decide to join forces.]]
* ParentalSubstitute: After spending so much time training with Miguel, the kid begins to see Johnny as a father figure and frequently turns to him for advice on topics such as dating girls, dealing with people, and how to navigate the world. It's reciprocated as, Johnny takes an active interest in Miguel's life and is always trying to steer him in the right direction. [[spoiler:After Miguel awakens from his coma, Johnny tells him he'd always be on his side and helps him learn to stand and walk again.]]
* PermaStubble: In the first episode, he possesses the unkempt down-on-your-luck variety. He shaves it off once he decides to resurrect the Cobra Kai dojo. It comes back in full force at the beginning of Season 3, which Johnny would also eventually shave off when he gets back to rebuilding his life [[spoiler:after losing his dojo to Kreese]].
* PetTheDog:
** After the All-Valley Tournament wraps up, Johnny approaches his son and apologizes to him over his own students using underhanded tactics to gain the upper hand. Robby lets it go and leaves with Daniel without further animosity.
** In the season 2 finale Johnny tells Robby that he isn't going to hide that Sam got drunk as Daniel has a right to know as her parent. This shows that for all their animosity Johnny is willing to be reasonable with Daniel when the situation calls for it.
* PingPongNaivete: He's aware of the #[=MeToo=] movement enough to try threatening Sid with exposing some of his older misdeeds, while still thinking a hashtag is called a hash''brown''.
* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Definitely. Politically incorrect? One of the first things he does is make judgmental remarks about Miguel based on his ethnicity, and shamelessly uses {{Gendered Insult}}s against guys. Hero? When Kyler and his goons attack Miguel, he steps in and delivers a righteous ass-kicking. That being said, CharacterDevelopment kicks in and he corrects Kreese about Miguel's ethnicity in Season 2; he's also a lot more open about letting female fighters join his team than he was in Season 1.
* PoorJudgeOfCharacter: His FatalFlaw, as the major events of the second season showed.
* APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil: {{Inverted}}. Perhaps from Kreese's view Johnny is this, but Johnny takes Cobra Kai's brutal doctrine and tries to teach in a way that is more positive and tolerant. He eventually breaks away from Kreese completely after it become clear that Kreese is determined to keep Cobra Kai as the degenerate ThugDojo it had been.
* QuickNip: When he and Daniel stopped at Daniel's old apartment while test-driving Johnny's soon-to-own Dodge Challenger, Johnny passively mentions seeing a bar around the corner and ropes Daniel into getting a drink with him. See FunctionalAddict.
* RagsToRiches: Downplayed. Starts off this series as a handyman living paycheck to paycheck and needing his rich stepfather to bail him out with money when needed. By the end of the season, he's doing well enough that he can pay back all the money his stepfather ever gave him.
* RatedMForManly: Firmly practices and preaches this and is practically inherent in Cobra Kai's philosophy. Many of Johnny's personal traits and beliefs are just manners of him asserting his masculinity and being a badass: answering most situations with violence, listening to rock music, driving American muscle cars, being a hit with the ladies,. etc.
* RebuiltPedestal: By the end of Season 3, [[spoiler:Hawk, Mitch, Bert, and a few others have returned to his tutelage after dealing with Kreese's mistreatment and realizing everything Johnny told them about the man is true.]]
* RedOniBlueOni: While they're both rather hot-headed and stubborn, Johnny serves as a headstrong and reckless Red Oni to Daniel's level-headed and rational Blue Oni.
* ReformedBully: Downplayed. Johnny is still a bit of a crude and ignorant {{Jerkass}}, but he is legitimately trying to do better with himself.
* TheResenter: Downplayed. He's initially this ways towards Daniel due to being a down on his luck handyman versus Daniel owning several car dealerships. However, once he turns his life around and becomes financially secure, he loses the resentment and even points out he would've left Daniel to live his own life, had he not tried to ruin Cobra Kai.
* RichesToRags: Johnny no longer has a trace of his privileged life as a teenager in this show. He's not too concerned about it as a FreezeFrameBonus of his drafted Facebook message to Ali reveals that he was never comfortable with the lifestyle in the first place. Miguel lampshades it when he finds out the truth from Daniel in Season 3.
--> '''Miguel:''' (incredulously) Sensei was a rich kid?
* RuleOfCool: {{Invoked}}. Johnny's life decisions all boil down to the ones that look or sound the most ''badass'' (which in his mind, firmly includes everything from TheEighties). However, his choices often makes him come across as TotallyRadical, such as using antiquated cultural references and outdated slang and naming his new karate school the [[AtrociousAlias garish]] "Eagle Fang".
* SchoolYardBullyAllGrownUp: In the 34 years between ''The Karate Kid'' and ''Cobra Kai'', Johnny Lawrence has hardly gotten any nicer. Worst of all, he's now all too aware of it. Johnny's main motivation in the beginning is to turn his dojo around and finally make something of his life, and he does gradually soften up and let his HiddenHeartOfGold peek out from time to time.
* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: He tears up and discards a check given to him by his stepfather, stating that he'd rather be homeless than accept financial support from someone who's been nothing but abusive to him. Later on, however, Johnny retrieves the same check and uses it to fund the opening of the new Cobra Kai dojo.
* SelfMadeMan: Downplayed. Though he had help in the form of his stepfather's check, Miguel's web savvy and the viral video of the lunchroom brawl with Kyler's posse, he managed to get Cobra Kai back up on pretty much nothing else. [[PyrrhicVictory And it won the All Valley Tournament!]]
* SenseiForScoundrels: Deconstructed in that although he doesn't intend to be an EvilMentor, he is still unconsciously reiterating what his own mentor Kreese taught him, with predictable results. Eventually, he sees the errors of his ways, and when he [[spoiler:opens Eagle Fang Karate, he makes a point of impressing on his students to be badass but not to be bullies, and to never be the one to throw the first punch in a fight.]]
* ShadowArchetype: It's clear that Johnny and Daniel both see each other as this. Johnny sees Daniel as the embodiment of his failure in the 1984 All Valley, which caused Kreese to turn on him and started the chain of events that led him to become a broken mess of an adult, while Daniel sees Johnny as a reminder of the bullying he suffered at his hands in high school, and of his own seduction by Cobra Kai in ''Film/TheKarateKidPartIII''. With both men associating each other with so many painful memories, it's almost impossible for them to admit how similar they really are.
-->'''Ali:''' [[NotSoDifferentRemark And the truth is, you guys are more alike than you want to admit]]. Maybe you recognize parts of yourselves in each other, and maybe you don't always like what you see.
* SinkOrSwimMentor: In the most literal way possible. He subjects his students to an intense {{training|from hell}} regimen and expects them to survive it on their own and without help. When trying to teach Miguel to use his legs he ties his hands and actually throws him into a pool so he can only use his legs to keep himself from sinking.
* SlobsVersusSnobs: Johnny's a scruffy, boorish and lazy Slob and Daniel's an affluent, cultured, diligent Snob.
* SourOutsideSadInside: Underneath his cantankerous and abrasive attitude, Johnny is shown to be deeply unhappy with his life and full of self-loathing at the beginning of the series since his bitter falling out with Kreese after the '84 tournament. Being TheAlcoholic doesn't do him any justice.
* SoProudOfYou:
** While he never uses the words, Johnny clearly feels this way towards Miguel, when he hears about the latter successfully beating up Kyler and his gang. He demonstrates it by [[PassingTheTorch giving Miguel the uniform he used to wear when he started training]].
** Taken up a notch by Season 3. He's far more open with his affection for Miguel, hugging him in the open multiple times. Also his Facebook account is almost primarily filled with moments with Miguel. [[LikeASonToMe It definitely shows how much Johnny has taken a parental role with him.]]
* SoccerHatingAmericans: When he sees Bobby watching soccer on TV in the hospital, he jokes that Tommy's illness is clearly worse than he thought.
* StatingTheSimpleSolution: When Eli brings up that he could be on the spectrum according to his doctor, Johnny tells him to "get off it". Johnny also tells him not to have a weird lip if he doesn't want to be addressed as "[[EmbarrassingNickname Lip]]".
* SurpassedTheTeacher: Johnny manages to beat Kreese twice, once at the beginning of Season 2 (while drunk no less) and again at the end of Season 3, showing that he has decisively surpassed his former sensei in terms of fighting capability.
* TestosteronePoisoning: Not as exaggerated as his student Hawk later becomes, but Johnny still practices the idea of dealing with everything in life "like a badass".
* TrademarkFavoriteDrink: '''Coors Banquet.''' For food: fried bologna and beef jerky.
* {{Troll}}: Has Miguel open the tournament with the Crane Kick solely because he knows how much Daniel will hate seeing the kid use his signature move. Likewise, he admits to Daniel that he organized the Cobra Kai demonstration just to upstage Miyagi-do.
* TookALevelInKindness: Starting up his own Cobra Kai dojo begins this process in Johnny, as he begins to care for and express compassion towards his students, becoming more tolerant and attentive in the process. When he undergoes a HeelRealization in Season 1's finale as HistoryRepeats during the tournament, he adjusts and tries to become an InternalReformist in an attempt to pull his students back from being in a ThugDojo. Unfortunately, he also allows [[ManipulativeBastard Kreese]] back in, thinking he's reformed...
* TwoDecadesBehind: He shows a shockingly high amount of ignorance about the internet for someone his age, not even knowing what Facebook is. His initial reaction to Aisha wanting to join the dojo also implies he isn't aware the US Army has allowed women to participate in combat.
* UngratefulBastard: He doesn't thank his stepfather for bailing him out of jail, instead bluntly questioning what he's doing in Johnny's apartment.
-->'''Johnny:''' What the hell are you doing in my apartment, Sid?\\
'''Sid:''' Oh, that's some "thank you".
* UnreliableNarrator: Johnny tells Miguel his version of his first encounter with Daniel, painting himself the victim and Daniel the villain, conveniently leaving out the other details of the encounter. In Season 3 when Miguel finally gets a chance to talk with Daniel, he fills in the blanks of what Johnny left out.
* UsedToBeASweetKid: A flashback shows that before joining Cobra Kai, Johnny was a shy kid who didn't have any friends and suffered verbal abuse from his stepdad on a daily basis. The dojo was the first place where he found acceptance, and taught him to adopt a tough and aggressive persona to protect himself.
* VillainsNeverLie: While he's not necessarily a villain, Johnny freely admits to all of his antagonistic actions during the course of the series like drawing the dick on Daniel's billboard or attacking Anoush to get information about Robby.
* VillainProtagonist: Downplayed. He goes from a secondary antagonist from the original film to the protagonist of his own series, but he bounces between AntiHero on his better days and WellIntentionedExtremist on his worse days.
* VitriolicBestBuds: [[PlayingWithATrope Played With.]] It's shown on multiple occasions that if he and Daniel could put their differences aside, they'd get along like a house on fire. However, a combination of PoorCommunicationKills and their interschool rivalry means that any moments of friendship end up being fleeting at best and they go back to being enemies. [[spoiler: They finally become this trope in earnest at the end of Season 3, when they bury the hatchet and join forces to defeat Kreese together.]]
* WaxOnWaxOff:
** An interesting example. Johnny makes Miguel clean the dojo, not with the intent of secretly training Miguel, but so the dojo can pass inspection. That said, all the manual work that Miguel had to do did seem to help Miguel get into shape for proper training.
--->'''Miguel:''' Hey, Sensei, is there any particular way you want me to wash these windows?\\
'''Johnny:''' Nah, I don't give a shit.
** Johnny's biggest deviation from Mr. Miyagi is his aversion to this. His training methods are harsh but he always makes sure to explain exactly what their purpose is to his students. As the All-Valley Tournament shows, it did them plenty of favors in the long run.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Season 2 makes it clear that as much as he fears and detests Kreese, he still places a lot of stock in his old sensei's approval.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: He genuinely wants to help his students overcome their problems, but echoing Kreese's methods turns them into the same types of bullies that he once was.
* WorthyOpponent: Proves to be a far better person than his EvilMentor.
* WouldHarmASenior: He doesn't hesitate to attack Miyagi after he steps in to defend Daniel. Miyagi, however, makes short work of Johnny and his friends.
* YouAreWhatYouHate: When Johnny has Kreese in a chokehold during their fight, he immediately has flashbacks to when Kreese did the same thing to him after losing the championship to Daniel all those years ago. The realization that he's acting like his old EvilMentor causes him to let go of the hold, although [[UngratefulBastard Kreese]] repays his mercy with a cheap shot.
* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe:
** He is shocked to discover that one of the teenagers who totaled his ride was Daniel [=LaRusso=]'s daughter, and later, when he learns that [[spoiler:his son chose to learn karate from his old enemy instead of him]].
** Johnny is also shocked that a kid Miguel's age has never heard of Music/GunsNRoses.
** His actual words when he finds out Robby has been training with Daniel, and that Robby has more respect for Daniel than he's ever shown for Johnny. Doubles as a TearJerker.
* YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: All he can do is look at [[spoiler:Kreese, his former mentor]], in complete silence when the latter compliments him for restoring Cobra Kai back to its former glory after winning the All Valley Tournament.
[[/folder]]
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%% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread.
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[[WMG:[[center:[-''Series/CobraKai'' '''[[Characters/CobraKai Main Character Index]]'''\\
[[Characters/CobraKaiDanielLaRusso Daniel [=LaRusso=]]] | '''Johnny Lawrence''' | [[Characters/CobraKaiJohnKreese John Kreese]] | [[Characters/CobraKaiRobbyKeene Robby Keene]] | [[Characters/CobraKaiEliMoskowitz Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz]] | [[Characters/CobraKaiToryNichols Tory Nichols]] | [[Characters/CobraKaiDemetriAlexopoulos Demetri Alexopoulos]]\\
'''Dojos and Others'''\\
[[Characters/CobraKaiCobraKaiAndAssociates Cobra Kai and Associates]] | [[Characters/CobraKaiEagleFangAndAssociates Eagle Fang and Associates]] | [[Characters/CobraKaiMiyagiDoAndAssociates Miyagi-Do and Associates]] | [[Characters/CobraKaiOtherCharacters Other Characters]]-]]]]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ck_s4_johnny_lawrence.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"You want something, you're going to have to crawl across the floor. Use your damn teeth if you have to."'']]
->'''Played by:''' William Zabka, Owen D. Stone ([[Recap/CobraKaiS1E6Quiver 1979 flashback]]), Thomas Parobek ([[Recap/CobraKaiS4E4Bicephaly Early 1970s flashback]])
->'''Appearances:''' ''Film/TheKarateKid1984'', ''Film/TheKarateKidPartII'', ''Characters/CobraKai''
->''"You couldn't leave me well enough alone, could you little twerp! Nah, you had to push it. And now you're gonna pay."''
->''"I wasn't always the badass sensei that I am today. Just like a cobra, I had to shed my loser skin to find my true power. And you guys will too."''
Ali's ex-boyfriend and Cobra Kai's #1 student, who serves as Daniel's rival of the first movie. 34 years after his defeat against Daniel [=LaRusso=], Johnny's life doesn't seem like it could be worse, but that's all about to change now that he's bringing back Cobra Kai, his beloved dojo.
[[foldercontrol]]
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[[folder:A-F]]
* TheAce: As the two-time winner of the 1982 and 1983 All-Valley Karate Tournaments, he was obviously Cobra Kai's #1 student. Seemed to be Daniel's superior in nearly every way but honor.
* AgeGapRomance: At 51, Johnny is about seventeen years older than Carmen, who is in her mid-thirties. She was either an infant or not even ''born'' during the events of the original movie.
* TheAlcoholic: Johnny apparently kept drinking straight from 1984 to the current day, with it even being clarified that his being so drunk he completely missed Ali's birthday was the reason for their breakup in the original movie. Like smoking, it's TruthInTelevision that people who start in high school often continue. It's played fairly straightforwardly, with even his students acknowledging that Sensei has alcohol issues.
* AllForNothing: [[spoiler:All of Johnny's work towards the next All-Valley across seasons 2-4 end up fruitless. Between his students feuding with Miyagi-Do, his whole relationship with Kreese, losing Corba Kai, his students turning on him, having to start a new dojo, and (of course) his never ending feud with Daniel, he is unable to pull it together. Ultimately, all of his current students at the time are knocked out of the tournament before the final round of both divisions. If fact, in an [[{{Irony}} ironic twist of fate]], the winners of the boys' and girls' divisions turn out to be one of his students who left for Miyagi-Do, and one of his former students who was Kreese's student for way longer respectively. Even worse, some of actions near the end of the season only served to alienate Miguel from him]].
* TheAllegedCar: Further reinforcing his DiscoDan attitudes, Johnny's car has clearly seen better days. To be fair though, the 1991 Pontiac Firebird was a pretty sweet car in its day; a fun street racer known for its speed, handling, cornering, and engine power while also being affordable. It's not hard to see why Johnny is so attached to it.
* AmbiguousDisorder: Johnny's disinterest with school, blatant BookDumb-ness, being LiteralMinded, and problems processing information in non-kinesthetic or spatial ways strongly hint at some kind of undiagnosed learning disorder. The glimpse of a young kid who couldn't make friends or communicate and was constantly fighting and trying to shut the world out suggest he might additionally be on the autism spectrum or have some other undiagnosed problem.
* AmicableExes:
** Johnny reconnects with Ali in Season 3 and despite learning that she was separating from her husband, Johnny chooses not to try and pursue her again and Ali, in turn, encourages Johnny to find his future with Carmen.
** He and Shannon seem to be becoming this in Season 3, though anything would seem more amicable compared to the way they were before.
* AnimalMotif: [[NobleBirdOfPrey Eagles.]] Eagles are known to symbolize courage, strength, and honor, traits that have been consistent with Johnny even when he is at his most brutish and uncouth. Johnny also watches ''Film/IronEagle'' religiously and later christens his new karate doctrine as "Eagle Fang".
* AntiHeroSubstitute: He's like Miyagi in that he mentors young people... but he's also a JerkWithAHeartOfGold.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion:
** He confronts and questions Hawk and Miguel their reasons for using underhanded tactics during the All-Valley Tournament. The two students can only glance at each other, confused, in response.
--->'''Johnny:''' Hawk. Did you attack your opponent when his back was turned?\\
'''Hawk:''' ''[hesitantly]'' ... Yes, Sensei?\\
'''Johnny:''' Diaz. Did you purposely attack your opponent's injury?\\
'''Miguel:''' ''[confidently]'' Yes, Sensei.\\
'''Johnny:''' Think that makes you badass?\\
''[Miguel and Hawk glance at each other in silence]''\\
'''Johnny:''' What's the matter, too tough a question? Maybe you need some help.
** Johnny voices his disapproval over Miguel finishing off a helpless Hawk during the "Red vs. Black" battle at Coyote Creek while also questioning whether or not he wants to revolve his life around Kreese's "no mercy" ideology.
--->'''Johnny:''' What was that? That's not how I taught you to fight.\\
'''Miguel:''' That's what Sensei Kreese taught us. This isn't a tournament, this is real life.\\
'''Johnny:''' Is that how you want to live your life?
* ArrogantKungFuGuy: As a kid but even at his worst, far less so than Kreese
* AscendedExtra: He goes from the franchise's one-off StarterVillain to the main protagonist here.
* TheAtoner: [[spoiler:At the end of Season 3, understanding he screwed up big time by resurrecting Cobra Kai and giving Kreese the opportunity to corrupt a new generation of teenagers, he merges his dojo with Daniel's so their students can win the All-Valley and get rid of the two for good.]]
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: After Johnny has spent most of the series tormented about his failure to be a good dad to Robby, [[spoiler:the Season 4 finale ''finally'' has Robby needing comfort and Johnny able to provide it, without anyone or anything else getting in the way. It's a shame Miguel had to run away to Mexico for the moment to happen]].
* * BeautyIsBad: A more conventionally handsome kid than Daniel-san.
* BerserkButton:
** Anything to do with Daniel [=LaRusso=] serves as this, even before Cobra-Kai makes a comeback.
** Damaging his car is even worse than pushing any of his other buttons as it'll drive him into a rage.
** And [[DirtyCoward using dirty tricks and cheap shots to win a competition]]? He might let it slide ''that'' day, but there ''will'' be hell to pay in the morning.
** Hurting, or even making mention of bringing pain towards [[LikeASonToMe Miguel]] and his family. Kreese's attempts to gaslight him simply stop working because he continues to bring up Miguel.
* BigShutUp: His preference is a loud, abrupt "'''QUIET!'''" that works every single time he uses it.
* BookDumb: Johnny must've forgotten a lot of things from his school years, such as mongooses existing, or he never bothered learning that stuff anyway.
* BreakingTheCycleOfBadParenting: Johnny clearly ''wants'' to do this, but it's not an easy thing to do. With an absent father, a distant, cruel stepfather and Kreese as a father figure, he's had nothing but bad examples. He wants to be a good father to Robby, and sees Miguel as a surrogate son, but constantly muddles through by trial and error, clearly not understanding the best way to be nurturing and supporting, and his lifetime of bad habits and poor coping mechanisms frequently cause him problems. To his credit, he never gives up trying, even while recognizing his own flaws.
* BreakoutCharacter: No doubt the most popular of the Cobra Kai students. Enough to even star in a series that is a distant sequel to the movie.
* BreakTheHaughty:
** Spends the first episode undergoing this. He is fired from his job as a handyman after a misunderstanding with a customer straight out of ''Website/NotAlwaysRight'', he is maced and arrested after trying to stick up for a neighbor who is being beaten up, his stepfather writes him off as a lost cause, his car gets smashed and towed to his old rival Daniel [=LaRusso=]'s auto shop, and then he learns that Daniel's daughter was involved.
** Once his backstory is revealed, you can't help but feel bad for Johnny even in the original films. [[spoiler:He didn't have a father and was forced to cope with an abusive step-dad. He then joined Cobra Kai to escape his abusive life, and thanks to the friends and respect he'd earned, he treated Kreese as the only father he's ever had, much like Daniel and Miyagi]]. You can only imagine how much emotional damage he had to endure after losing the '84 tournament.
* BrokenPedestal: By the end of Season 2, he becomes this for [[spoiler:Hawk, Tory, Mitch, and several of the other Cobra Kai students. They blame him for Miguel's hospitalization because Miguel was following his teachings on mercy.]]
* BroodingBoyGentleGirl: Is the Brooding Boy to Carmen's Gentle Girl when they become a couple in Season 3.
* BrutalHonesty: If Johnny wants to say something, he will say it regardless of how rude or hurtful it will be. At times this out of love, since he wants to see his students do better from his point of view. However, others have pointed out that this approach can just end up pushing people away and so he makes an effort to lessen his bluntness somewhat.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Alcoholic and crass but he is a great sensei and his lessons work. Kreese points out it's a miracle he could train a bunch of outcasts and nerds into All Valley champion material.
* CallingTheOldManOut: Johnny's last visit to his stepfather's has him return money given to him by the latter, now that Cobra Kai is in a financially stable position. Sid claims his stepson will be back for more... only for him to quip that he no longer needs to rely on his stepfather for financial support, and smugly leaves, while Sid is left speechless.
-->'''Johnny:''' I never needed your money. It's just the only thing you had to give. Goodbye, Sid.
* CasanovaWannabe: Downplayed. Johnny still seems to think he's a smooth-talking ladykiller, while a lot of women (particularly younger women) tend to disagree.
-->'''Johnny:''' ''[trying to sound suave]'' ''Hey.''\\
'''Jogger:''' ''[glares at him and jogs off]'' Creep.
* CassandraTruth: In Season 3, he tells Hawk and the other Cobra Kai loyalists that [[ItsAllAboutMe Kreese only sees them as pawns and he doesn't actually give a shit about any of them]]. [[spoiler:By the finale, Hawk realizes he's right.]]
* {{Catchphrase}}: "Badass" and ("Don't be a") "pussy". Also '''''[[BigShutUp "QUIET!"]]'''''
* CharacterDevelopment: Johnny entire arc is about reconciling with the past and learning to live for the present. Restarting Cobra Kai sets him on a path of a having a real and fulfilling career, building new relationships, atoning for past mistakes, and finding inner peace and closure. After regarding Ali as TheOneThatGotAway in the years since the original film and the first two seasons, [[spoiler:Johnny reconnects with her in Season 3 and realizes that, as great as their relationship was, it was in the past and what he really needed was closure. Thus, he departs with her as AmicableExes and chooses to pursue Carmen instead.]]
* ConspiracyTheorist: Johnny believes that it was dinosaurs that built the pyramids, as he commented "I knew it" after finding a fake news website with "proof" of it while surfing the web for the first time.
* CoolCar: Johnny's 3rd generation Pontiac Firebird ''was'' a pretty sweet whip for its time, being relatively affordable and capable of some high performance riding. After it's destroyed, Johnny chooses a more conventionally stylish and modern '09 Dodge Challenger from one of Daniel's trade-ins. Season 2 has him give it an exceptionally badass matte black and gold, Cobra Kai-themed paint job.
* CuttingTheKnot: Fitting the nature of Cobra Kai and his own attitude, Johnny tends to brute force his way through problems when things don’t work out. When first trying to visit Miguel in ICU disguised as a doctor, he realizes quickly that it won’t work and beats his head in until he’s injured enough to be admitted. Similarly, after attempts to beg Sid for money for Miguel’s surgery fail, he just snatches one of Sid’s art pieces to pawn off.
* DareToBeBadass: The ethos of Cobra Kai, and later Eagle Fang; Johnny's goal is to help kids who are unconfident, lost, or weak into becoming badass, gaining outer and inner strength in the process. While this philosophy unintentionally turns them into the violent thugs he and his friends once were, he later makes efforts to instill the philosophy of strength and awesomeness without resorting to bullying others.
--> '''Johnny:''' You see that? It doesn't matter if you're a loser, or a nerd, or a freak. All that matters is that you become badass!* DefeatMeansFriendship: Though he doesn't appear again after he gets berated by Kreese for losing at the beginning of ''Part II'', and ''Series/CobraKai'' shows that there's still some bad blood between him and Daniel.
* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler:By the end of Season 2, Miguel is hospitalized, Carmen blames him for Miguel's injuries and never wants to see him again, and he's lost his dojo and his students to John Kreese, leaving him all alone and with nothing else to do but to [[DrowningMySorrows drown his sorrows in alcohol by the beachside.]] However, things are looking up for him in the next season.]]
** Similarly, at the end of season 4 [[spoiler: his dojo is hanging by a thread, Cobra Kai is poised to take over the valley, and Miguel runs away to try and track down his birth father. The only thing keeping him from falling completely in despair is Robby showing up.]]
* {{Determinator}}: When he's committed or inspired, Johnny doesn't let '''''anything''''' keep him down. His revival of Cobra Kai and getting Miguel walk again are just two examples that Johnny has achieved due to largely out of his own perseverance. It's in fact one of his life's virtues, which he best gets across when he visit Miguel again following his surgery.
-->'''Johnny:''' 'Never', 'can't', those are just words, they're meaningless! It's time for you to get out of that bed and do something. You're not a kid anymore. The world isn't just gonna hand it to you. You want something, you're gonna have to crawl across the floor. Use your damn teeth if you have to!
* DirtyCoward: Defied. The day after the All-Valley Tournament, he lectures his entire dojo on what Cobra Kai really stands for, and has zero tolerance whatsoever for using underhanded tactics (which he dismissively labels "pussy moves") to defeat opponents unable to fight back.
-->'''Johnny:''' Cobra Kai is about being badass. And the baddest badass is the one who beats his opponent when he's at his strongest. ''Not'' when his back is turned. ''Not'' when he's injured. That means no more cheating. No more fighting dirty. From here on out, those are pussy moves, and you don't wanna be pussies, do ya?
* DisappearedDad:
** Johnny says he never knew his dad (and apparently never discussed it with Laura). Sid makes a couple of remarks to the effect of "at least I stuck around".
** It's later revealed in Season 4 [[spoiler: that wasn't entirely the case. Johnny's dad left when he was in kindergarten, with a young Johnny keeping a box of his things, including a period-accurate [[GenerationXerox Coors beer can]]. Johnny does imply to Miguel that he ''could'' track him down, but that's all the information we get]].
** Played with Robby. He's something of an estranged GenerationXerox case, despite having Robby's picture on the fridge and keeping his drawings, but at least Robby and Shannon know where to find him. See MyGreatestFailure.
* DiscoDan:
** Johnny is stuck in an 80s stasis and still drives an old Pontiac Firebird, listens only to "hair metal" bands, ''prints'' flyers for his dojo in the same style as the original Cobra Kai, and repeatedly watches ultra-80s classic ''Film/IronEagle'' as his go-to movie of choice.
** The comic spin-off has a RunningGag of Johnny trying to use an 80s based metaphor to explain something or motivate his students, only for it to flop due to them being unaware of the context.
** He also shows a distressing ignorance of social media, seemingly preferring to use a flip phone and doesn't have a Website/{{Facebook}} profile (not extremely unusual by itself, but he also doesn't even know what it ''is'' until Daniel shows him).
--->'''Johnny:''' What's a Facebook?\\
'''Daniel:''' Wow. Really, Johnny?
*** Although he ended up getting a old Windows laptop and later upgrading to a smartphone (until he throws it out in rage at the beach in S2 finale) and also creating a Facebook account for the first time, he still has some trouble with the Internet and that despite being wireless, the laptop still needs to be plugged in to charge the battery.
** Overall, while major life-events have clearly occurred for him (having a son) it’s clear that TheEighties are a familiar bubble he is unwilling (or perhaps unable) to break out of.
** In another episode, Johnny has an EroticDream about Carmen where she mimics Tawny Kaitain from the music video for "Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake.
** A part of his CharacterDevelopment is learning to leave his familiar [[DiscoDan Eighties bubble]] to live in the present and look to the future.
* DrillSergeantNasty: Like Kreese, Johnny adopts this style for training his own students, before eventually shifting to a bit softer teaching method.
* DrinkBasedCharacterization: Is rarely seen drinking anything but a Coors Banquet, an inexpensive American beer that matches Johnny's blue-collar lifestyle and {{Eagleland}} tendencies to a T. Best shown in "Pulpo" where Daniel, Carmen, and Amanda all order fancier cocktails and he sticks with the Coors, sticking out like a sore thumb.
* DrowningMySorrows: Comes with being TheAlcoholic. Some notable moments include [[spoiler:the aftermath after bringing an injured Miguel back to his angered mother, Johnny's reaction to his son being a student of Daniel, and the last moment of Season 1. His worst comes in Season 2 after he's unable to locate Robby and finds out the boy is living with the [=LaRussos=]. Carmen has to help him inside and get him sobered up.]]
** Happens again in Season 4 after [[spoiler: Terry Silver lures him to the old Cobra Kai building and kicks the shit out of him there. Miguel later finds him at his apartment on the floor, completely plastered and surrounded by beer cans, having even pissed himself.]]
* DudeWheresMyRespect: An undercurrent of Johnny's resentment towards Daniel comes down to the fact that Johnny's entire legacy in Karate ultimately got defined by his narrow defeat at the hand of Daniel. It didn't matter that he was a former Two-Time champion himself, [[WrittenByTheWinners Cobra Kai became known as thugs and cheaters]] and since Johnny was effectively TheFace of the dojo, his previous accomplishments got downplayed. Daniel finally tried to make right by this at the tail end of Season 4 by having Johnny publicly recognized as a Two-Time Champion as well.
* DumbBlonde: He's a reckless manchild who's ignorant to modern times and believes karate is American, a mongoose is not an animal and eagles have fangs.
* {{Eagleland}}: A mild Type B, being crude and boorish, but still a JerkWithAHeartOfGold. Besides being an 80s DiscoDan, Johnny near-exclusively drinks Coors brews, drives American muscle cars, and assumed Miguel's family were illegal immigrants. It extends to his practice of karate, which he thinks of as American and superior to "foreign" arts like UsefulNotes/BrazilianJiuJitsu and UsefulNotes/{{Taekwondo}}. Though he occasionally falls into type A as he instills positive American qualities in his students like personal empowerment, anti-victimhood, standing up for yourself, confidence, persistence, and passion. This is symbolized by the American flag on his wall in the Cobra Kai dojo.
* EccentricMentor: The sheer ''depth'' of his DiscoDan tendencies, BookDumb ignorance, and TestosteronePoisoning, all while drinking enough booze he just qualifies as a FunctionalAddict, provides a significant amount of comedy to the series, with his students sometimes pulling double duty as the CloudcuckoolandersMinder... but in spite of all of that, Johnny is a ''damn good sensei.''
* EskimosArentReal:
** Throws Miguel's inhaler against the wall after he tells him he has asthma, declaring that made up problems such as asthma and peanut allergies and the like don't exist in Cobra Kai.
** He names [[spoiler: his new Karate school]] Eagle Fang[[labelnote:*]]due to eagles being able to kill snakes[[/labelnote]] because he believes that mongooses are a fictional animal.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Middle-aged Johnny's first onscreen appearance in the series is him waking up in the morning [[TheAlcoholic visibly hungover and takes a sip of some stale beer]] (he spits out some before finishing the bottle anyway). When Miguel introduces himself as his new neighbor, [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero Johnny nonchalantly assumes him to be an immigrant]]. Johnny then drives to work in his vintage but shoddy muscle car while [[DiscoDan listening to 80s hair metal]].
* EveryoneHasStandards:
** It's hinted in the first film (and outright confirmed in ''Series/CobraKai'') that while Johnny is aggressive and competitive, he doesn't like using dirty tactics in tournament fights and prefers fighting fair. When Kreese orders Johnny to target Daniel's wounded knee by performing a leg sweep, Johnny appears shocked that he's being ordered to do something so dishonorable (even though leg sweeping is a perfectly legal move in competitive Karate). Presumably, this is due to the fact he's taking advantage of an injury which Kreese, himself, ordered inflicted.
** Since Johnny's trying to be a better person, he doesn't quite qualify for "evil", and either way his reaction to Aisha testifying what cyberbullying is like fills him with disgust; at least when ''he'' was a bully, [[DoWrongRight he always did it to his victim's face instead of hiding behind a screen like a coward.]]
** PlayedForLaughs when he teaches the Cobra Strike to Miguel and mentions that if he hits the throat he can severely damage someone's trachea. It's worth noting he was still preaching no mercy but even back then he doesn't want Miguel to kill his bullies.
--->'''Johnny:''' [[LampshadeHanging Obviously, that's only for extreme situations.]]
** It's also shown that while he sees nothing wrong about guys harassing girls until they agree to go on a date, he also believes that if a girl doesn't want to do anything physical then the guy should back off.
** When he and Carmen coincidentally end up at the same restaurant on separate dates, he overhears Carmen's date on a phone call to a friend, telling said friend that he intends to just get Carmen into bed and sleep with her a few times before dumping her. This enrages Johnny to the point of beating up Carmen's date and telling him to never go near her again.
** It is clear from both his actions during and right after the tournament to his dressing down of Miguel and Hawk that he does not approve of fighting dirty, calling cheap shots "pussy moves". He makes clear to Miguel afterwards that there's a big difference between showing no mercy in a fight and showing no honor outside of it.
** He is disgusted to learn that one of his students vandalized the Miyagi-Do dojo and he puts all the students through vigorous conditioning drills to make the culprit confess.
** While he may have some [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero ignorant and insensitive assumptions about certain nationalities]] such as assuming Miguel was an immigrant when they first met, Johnny is not a racist. When he considers naming his new dojo ‘Kobra Kai Karate’ (‘Triple K’), Miguel points out its unfortunate implications to a [[TheKlan certain political group]] and he wisely dismisses this idea.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Johnny's not a bad man, per se, but is certainly rough hewn and insensitive, with more than a few bad habits. He resents all of his past father figures (with good reasons), but still clearly cares deeply about his mother, even years after her death.
* FatalFlaw: Johnny's [[PoorJudgeOfCharacter blind spot when it comes to Kreese]] ends up being the catalyst to all major issues that occur in the second season. Despite everything that happens, Johnny still sees Kreese as a father-figure and projects his own desire to become a better person onto him. This is despite literally ''everyone'' telling Johnny [[DevilInPlainSight what an awful idea letting Kreese teach again is]]. Despite his own concerns with Kreese's teaching style, he continues to allow Kreese to teach and influence his students unchecked. This builds to the point where Kreese's Cobra Kai becomes the GangOfBullies that Daniel kept accusing them of being and Johnny wanted to avoid them becoming.
** Jealousy, plain and simple. His first scene in the first movie shows him planning to turn himself around and fly straight, immediately followed by him seeing Daniel with Ali, causing him to pick a fight, which was the catalyst for the entire film's plot (and thus influencing the rest of his life). A lot of his worst tendencies in Cobra Kai come out of a result of jealousy. In Season 4 [[spoiler:it's part of the reason the dojo merger blows up as he can't stand Daniel getting closer to Miguel and this ends up preventing the two from beating Cobra Kai at the All Valley tournament.]]
* AFatherToHisMen: As harsh as his training methods are, his speech to the All-Valley Tournament committee and behavior during the tournament itself prove that he does genuinely care about his students and wants them to succeed and takes pride in seeing them grow and takes his role as a mentor very seriously. [[spoiler:It's why several of the current and former Cobra Kai students decide to join his new dojo in Season 3.]]
* TheFettered: He advocates for striking first as part of the Cobra Kai philosophy, but abhors utilizing underhanded tactics to gain the upper hand against a disadvantaged opponent. [[spoiler:He goes further in this once he forms his "Eagle Fang" school, where he adds that one is to not be a bully (but still be badass) and to never start the fight.]]
* {{Flanderization}}: In the show's first season it becomes clear that Johnny is a man who is still living in the 1980s, but by the end of season 2 he is so hopelessly out of touch with the modern world that Daniel has to explain to him what Facebook is.
* {{Foil}}: Despite their similarities in their love of karate and {{Determinator}} attitudes, Daniel and Johnny's personalities, upbringings and lives since they left high school make them as different as night and day.
** Both were raised by single mothers, having lost their own fathers at a young age (Daniel's father died, Johnny's abandoned him and his mother). They both turned to karate and found a mentor and father figure there, and both of those mentors had a huge and lasting impact on their lives and psychological development. How they ended up says a lot about the impact those mentors had.
** Johnny was a rich kid growing up due to his wealthy stepfather while Daniel had been a poor kid whose mother had to work several jobs. Ironically, [[HourglassPlot these roles are reversed]] for them as adults, as Daniel grows up to become a rich and successful owner of a successful car dealership (which is number 1 in the Valley) and lives in a big house while Johnny now lives in a run-down apartment in Reseda and [[GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity bounces between various menial jobs]] before becoming a sensei.
** Johnny has has gotten in trouble with the law multiple times and has ended up in jail while Daniel has never had any law trouble and never was in jail.
** Though both dated Ali Mills in the past and have had several relationships since, Johnny's failure to move on from [[TheOneThatGotAway Ali]] has ruined all of his relationships until he gets together with Carmen. Daniel, on the other hand, has been HappilyMarried to Amanda for many years. Johnny has neglected his son Robby his whole life, leaving him to be raised by his mother, Shannon, as a single parent, while Daniel has been around for Samantha and Anthony their whole lives and is a very devoted father to them in a traditional, stable family.
** Johnny is completely stuck in TheEighties and ignorant of modern culture, while Daniel has done a much better job of keeping up with the times, being a huge fan of ''Series/GameOfThrones'' and expressing shock at [[HopelessWithTech Johnny]] not knowing what Website/{{Facebook}} is.
** [[SnobsVsSlobs Daniel is a polite and cultured man, while Johnny is a rude, boorish slob]]. This is demonstrated through their [[DrinkBasedCharacterization drink orders]] when they talk at the bar in "[[Recap/CobraKaiS1E9DifferentButSame Different but Same]]". Daniel orders a fancy Ketel Martini, while Johnny orders a Coors Banquet, an inexpensive American beer.
* ForgivenButNotForgotten: Enforced by Daniel. Johnny approaches Robby after the finals of the All Valley Tournament and apologizes to him for Miguel using dirty tricks to win Cobra Kai the tournament. Robby, who has already been imparted enough forgiveness from Daniel by then, calmly lets the issue slide and departs without further animosity at that moment. However, the beginning of Season 2 shows that Robby is still angry at Johnny and is still working on forgiving him. Eventually, their relationship improves [[spoiler:until Robby critically injures Miguel, serves time in juvie for it, and joins Kreese's Cobra Kai since he no longer trusts Daniel and Johnny.]]
* FreudianExcuse: The show reveals that Johnny wasn't just some spoiled rich kid, but rather an emotionally abused youth. He was bullied at home by a cruel stepfather, and Kreese's Cobra Kai dojo was the only place he found any kind of acceptance and mentorship, as twisted as it may have been.
* FunctionalAddict: Pretty much a textbook example. After more than 30 years of seemingly constant drinking, he does it so he won't go into withdrawal. His sky-high alcohol tolerance means a drink or two doesn't affect him nearly the way a more casual drinker would, which is how he manages to stay functional enough to teach karate and drive competently (mostly). He still has a few major breakdowns and ends up in completely shitfaced TheAlcoholic territory, though.
* FutureLoser: Johnny's life hit the skids after high school. He's no longer rich (the money belonged to his stepdad and they don't really talk anymore), he performs odd jobs as a handyman and he's mostly stuck in the past.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:G-N]]
* GenderedInsult: He has no problem deliberately addressing guys with terminology that refers to the opposite sex. He also seems visibly disgusted at the very concept of "gendered insults". "Pussy" is basically his students' catchphrase, thanks to him.
-->'''Johnny:''' Striking first is about being aggressive. Right? If you're not aggressive, then you're being a pussy. You don't want to be a pussy; you want to have balls.\\
'''Miguel:''' Don't you think you're doing a lot of genderizing?\\
'''Johnny:''' ...What?\\
'''Miguel:''' Oh, uh, sorry. Don't you think you're doing a lot of genderizing, Sensei?\\
'''Johnny:''' No, what the hell are you talking about?\\
'''Miguel:''' Oh, uh, my guidance counselor says that certain words perpetuate the sexist world view that can trigger--\\
'''Johnny:''' QUIET! From now on, you won't listen to your guidance counselor. You're going to listen to me. Is that understood?\\
'''Miguel:''' Uh, yes, Sensei.\\
'''Johnny:''' Good. Now stop yapping like a little girl and give me fifty push-ups on your knuckles.
* GenerationXerox: Zigzagged.
** For the first half of Season 1, he's this to Mr. Miyagi, being the maintenance man turned unorthodox karate teacher to a bullied youth (granted Johnny is a more jaded and cynical version of Miyagi).
** By the second half of Season 1, after Cobra Kai starts gaining more students, Johnny becomes one to Kreese, a SenseiForScoundrels, despite his best attempts to avoid this. This bit in particular is zigzagged, because unlike Kreese, he isn't large and intimidating or conspicuously malevolent looking. It doesn't help that Kreese was in his prime while Johnny is just over 50 and beset with all the physical problems of aging (along with his years if not decades of copious alcohol consumption), and he hasn't practiced his art in decades due to real life getting in the way. Also, Johnny has more comedic moments due to his lack of tech-savviness and being at least twenty years out of date. Amusingly, Johnny's attempts to talk tough sound like he's channeling his whiny teenage voice.
* GlobalIgnorance: Despite being a sensei, he thinks karate comes from America. He even advertises it as such to prospective students.
-->'''Johnny:''' All this new-age crap, like jiu-jitsu, taekwondo, they're all just cheap knockoffs of karate.
* GoodCounterpart: To John Kreese. Two Johns who are practitioners and teachers of Tang Soo Do (being senseis of Cobra Kai). Both had rough childhoods before being taught (and eventually betrayed) by an evil mentor (Kreese from Captain Turner, Johnny from Kreese himself); as such, both eventually fight their evil mentors during the climax of Season 3. Both had it rough after their defeat from Mr. Miyagi and Daniel [=LaRusso=], and by Season 4, both happen to be their poorer counterparts of their co-senseis (Johnny to Daniel, Kreese to Terry Silver). But while Johnny is all about turning bullied students into becoming better versions of themselves and teaching them how to be "badass" (but in a more merciful way), Kreese is all about recruiting and indoctrinating bullies into worse versions of themselves and showing no mercy by all means.
* GoodIsNotNice: Johnny is earnestly trying to do better with his life, he genuinely cares for his students, and he loves his son. Doesn't mean he'll be particularly gentle or polite about any of those things.
* GoodParents: Becomes this in Season 3, [[spoiler:just not to Robby. He helps Miguel recover from his injury and supports him every step of the way. He becomes a great ParentalSubstitute to Miguel, but his relationship with Robby is still a mess, as he makes several critical blunders that lead to Robby joining Cobra Kai.]]
* GracefulLoser: After losing to Daniel in the tournament, he accepts his loss fairly calmly and willingly hands him the trophy.
-->'''Johnny''': You're alright, [=LaRusso=]. Good match!
* GrumpyBear: He starts off being an abrasive, bitter curmudgeon who was a JadedWashout envious of Daniel's success and living in squalor but later becomes a more easygoing and more likable person thanks to Miguel.
* HairTriggerTemper: Prone to anger and violence, Johnny is highly aggressive when he feels provoked especially with Daniel and Kreese.
* HatesTheirParent: He holds his stepfather, Sid, in contempt because of his emotional abuse towards him since childhood.
* TheHeavy: While he's the one who antagonizes and bullies Daniel, it's mostly because of Kreese and Cobra Kai's influence. As Mr. Miyagi explains, the teacher's guidance is ultimately responsible for the student's actions and the later films make it clear Kreese is the true BigBad.
* HeroicBSOD: At the end of Season 2, after his son injures Miguel in the school brawl, all he can do is get in an elevator with Daniel and share a quiet BSOD.
* HiddenDepths:
** In his very first scene, he turns down Tommy's offer of a beer because he wants to be ready for the first day of school the next morning.
** We never see him study or practice any kind of religion, but he knows enough about Christianity such that he correctly reminds Bobby that one of the core principles of the faith is showing forgiveness towards others for their ''past'' misdeeds. Unfortunately for Johnny, this doubles as a HorribleJudgeOfCharacter moment, since Kreese hasn't changed.
* HiddenHeartOfGold: Johnny [[GracefulLoser takes his loss against Daniel in the tournament with dignity]] and even presents him with the trophy while telling him it was a good match. Also earlier, when ordered by Kreese to use cheap shots and dirty tactics to defeat Daniel, Johnny is genuinely appalled.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Him putting his faith in his former Cobra Kai sensei ultimately becomes his own undoing, for [[spoiler:Kreese swipes control of the Cobra Kai dojo along with the loyalty of eight of his students, following the events of the school brawl]].
* HopelessWithTech: Johnny has never owned a computer before, and after buying one for the first time he is incapable of even turning it on without help. He eventually uses a combination of an ''[[ParodiesForDummies Internet for Dummies]]'' book and calling the pawnshop owner whom he bought the laptop from for help.
** He even upgrades from a flip phone to an Android smartphone, although he is still frustrated with it due to his smartphone beeping unnecessary alerts (such as software updates and import contacts). He would later discard it by throwing it at the beach in Season 2 finale.
** Season 3 has him think his laptop is broken after its battery ran out, thinking that it being wireless meant he didn't have to plug it into a wall socket.
* {{Hunk}}: No longer the PrettyBoy he use to be, but apart from some wrinkles (as pointed out by his old friend Bobby), Johnny still has some rugged handsomeness going for him.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Johnny is a hypocrite on multiple occasions:
** Johnny was angry about Daniel being a father to his son when Johnny constantly neglected him his whole life Johnny angrily pees on the [=LaRusso=] license plate of his car. It’s huge hypocrisy since Johnny pays more attention to Miguel and feels as if it's different.
** He tells Daniel to get his house in order when Johnny didn't even take care of his family. It's Daniel who's taking care of Johnny's family by paying for Shannon's rehab and paying for Robby's lawyer. For goodness' sake, Johnny is a grown adult who still relies on his stepfather’s money!
* HypocriteHasAPoint: Johnny tells Daniel to get his house in order after he mentions Kyler being on good terms with his daughter. While Johnny's own family situation isn't that much better, he's not wrong for pointing out that Kyler isn't the type of guy Sam thinks he is (he knows Kyler as a bully, and at this point, Kyler is also putting on an act for the sake of getting into Sam's pants).
-->'''Daniel:''' Just stay away from my daughter's friends.\\
'''Johnny:''' Your daughter's friends? Yeah, that makes sense. Nice company she keeps.\\
'''Daniel:''' What the hell is that supposed to mean?\\
'''Johnny:''' It means that those friends of hers were wailing on a kid half their size. Now, maybe you don't know your daughter as well as you think you do. Get your house in order, [=LaRusso=].
* ICouldaBeenAContender: His constant reminiscing of his GloryDays as the Valley's best karateka (and well on his way for state or even national recognition) strongly implies he feels this.
* IgnoredEpiphany: In his first scene, Johnny declares that he's leaving behind his degenerate behaviour and turning over a new leaf as he starts his senior year. Moments later, he sees Daniel and Ali together, his GreenEyedMonster takes over and he completely forgets about this vow for the rest of the movie.
* InadequateInheritor:
** Inverted, tragically. While Johnny is trying to recreate Cobra Kai to be a better organization and philosophy than it was under Kreese, he inadvertently ends up not only recreating its original ethos as a bullying haven, but his emphasis on CombatPragmatist thinking leads his star pupil to be even more ruthless than he was in his heyday. [[spoiler:Kreese even returns to congratulate him on such an accomplishment.]]
** However, it's also inverted in that, from a pure technical standpoint, Johnny is actually a better karate instructor than Kreese is. Johnny was able to turn his students from a RagtagBunchOfMisfits with little to no athletic ability into them being formidable fighters strictly through his instruction and training methods which eventually helped Cobra Kai into being the most outstanding karate dojo in the Valley despite it being forgotten for decades. Kreese, on the other hand, just resorts to bringing in a bunch of established athletes and teach them karate moves, [[spoiler:and several of them wind up losing to Johnny's students in the Season 3 brawl.]]
* InnocentlyInsensitive: When Johnny questions Eli if he's one of those "challenged kids", the latter comments that he might be on the (autism) spectrum, according to his doctor. Unfamiliar with neurological conditions, Johnny simply tells Eli to "get off it."
-->'''Eli:''' My doctor said I could be on the spectrum.\\
'''Johnny:''' I don't know what that is, but get off it, pronto.
* InsaneTrollLogic: He lambastes Aisha's tormentors for being a "bunch of pussies" for bullying her behind a screen, [[DoWrongRight while at the same time upholding face-to-face bullying as honorable.]]
-->''"Back in my day, if you wanted to tease someone, you did it to their face. There was honor, respect. These geeks hiding behind their computers -- what a bunch of spineless losers."''
* InternalReformist: On top of bettering himself as a person, Johnny works to change Cobra Kai's ways for the better such that they don't adhere to the "no mercy" mindset.
-->'''Johnny:''' Cobra Kai needs to change. What you taught didn't work back then and it doesn't work now.\\
'''Kreese:''' Well, whaddya want to change it to? Something nice and snuggly like a blanket?\\
'''Johnny:''' No. Cobra Kai will always be badass. But there's a difference between no mercy and no honor.
* JadedWashout: A former teen karate champion now a middle-aged down-on-his-luck handyman living by paycheck.
* {{Jerkass}}: He's an arrogant bully who enjoys lording his toughness over other people.
* JerkJock: A much more popular, better looking, and tougher kid than Daniel-san.
* JerkassHasAPoint: Despite being a jerk occasionally, he is often times right in his accusations, criticisms and observations.
** In regards to his fight at the strip mall, he tells Daniel, "I didn't beat up any teenagers. I kicked the shit out of a bunch of assholes who deserved it." He is not wrong; Kyler and his friends were assaulting Miguel, a kid half their size, over [[DisproportionateRetribution Miguel accidentally blowing their cover]], and they started a fight with ''Johnny'' when he tried to intervene. Johnny is also right to tell Daniel that he should keep an eye on who his daughter is hanging out with and that he is not as knowledgeable about his daughter's activities as he thinks he is.
** As harsh of an instructor as he is, and at times quite degrading, his methods are effective at teaching. He is absolutely right when he says fair fights don't exist in a street fight. In the episode, "Quiver", when Miguel [[WhatTheHellHero calls him out]] for insulting his new students. Johnny is later proven correct that even though many of them [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere quit due to his bullying]], it's shown to be effective at weeding the weaker ones out. In the same episode, Demetri tries telling Johnny that his harsh insults are socially unacceptable, only to have Johnny point out that some people don't give a damn about what society says is or isn't okay to do; when Demetri keeps up with the snark, Johnny proves his point by getting in the the kid's face and putting him on the floor.
** When he confronts Daniel, while he might be wrong about Louie and his friends having been ordered by Daniel to wreck his car, he's not wrong about the potential consequences of their impulsive acts; lighting a car on fire is likely to cause the fire to spread, especially having been carelessly splashed with gasoline. It wouldn't have taken much for the flames to travel to a building.
** Additionally, his critique that Daniel can never leave well enough alone is completely accurate. Throughout season one, Daniel goes out of his way to hinder Johnny's efforts to revive Cobra Kai while Johnny was content to let him live his life. It gets worse in season two when Daniel decides to revive Miyagi-Do to combat Cobra Kai's influence in the Valley and creates a RivalDojos scenario that ends [[spoiler:in an all out war between the teens that ends with Sam and Miguel in the hospital.]] In the aftermath, Amanda calls him out on this as well.
** While he himself is a deadbeat dad, when Johnny calls out Shannon on being a crappy parent as well, he is correct that her neglect of Robby plays a direct role in his turn to drugs, crime and general delinquency.
** Johnny resents Daniel for the water hose stunt he pulled at the Halloween dance in 1984, pointing out to Miguel that he hadn't bothered the guy in weeks. Later on, when Miguel and Daniel talk about the feud and Miguel brings up the water hose incident, Daniel does reluctantly admit that was on him.
** He's right that Sam and Demetri's sparring match isn't very productive training if the two of them are just going to walk in a circle and keep waiting for the other to throw the first punch. Their tournament opponents won't be nearly as patient and they need to practice blocking and striking.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He's a rude and crude ManChild, but he's trying to become a better person and is honestly trying to help his students.
* KnowWhenToFoldEm: In a deleted scene, Johnny nearly gets in a physical altercation with a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructor after trying to poach his students. He calls it off when a police car shows up so he won't violate his probation.
* LaughablyEvil: [[DownplayedTrope Although he’s not evil]], Johnny’s blunt insensitivity and crudeness lead to some of the funniest moments in the series.
* LethalChef: Johnny's dedication to manliness unfortunately means he's inexperienced in "womanly" pursuits like cooking, with comically unappetizing results.
* LikeParentLikeSpouse: His mother and his ex-girlfriend look so much alike they could be related. Shannon even seems to share some traits with Johnny's mother, in wanting to find a man to take care of her, but the similarities end with their looks and that driving factor.
* LiteralMinded: Not usually, but when Miguel tells him to fight the ban against Cobra Kai from the All Valley Tournament, Johnny gets in his head to head down to the committee and beat them up.
* LittleNo: Shown silently mouthing this and shaking his head when Miguel grabs Robby's leg and prepares to target Robby's shoulder again during the tournament, cementing Johnny's failure as a mentor and father figure to both boys.
* LowerClassLout: He starts the series as an alcoholic divorced handyman and quickly becomes an alcoholic divorced ''ex''-handyman.
* {{Manchild}}: Well into middle-age at the start of the series and still stuck in a teenage mentality. While he does mature, he never quite grows out of his fixation on being "badass", even when it does more harm than good.
* ManlyManAndSensitiveGuy: While both are skilled karate masters, Johnny is the manly man to Daniel's sensitive guy.
* ManlyTears: If you thought [[spoiler:a hospitalized Miguel]] wasn't enough, Johnny listens to a voicemail he missed from Miguel requesting his help, and is unable to hold back his tears.
* MartialArtsHeadband: He wears his black headband from ''Film/TheKarateKid1984'' again when he restarts Cobra-Kai. He reveals that it was actually a gift from Ali.
* TheMentor: An abrasive and crass one, but he still has the best intentions and his advice is more often than not actually very good.
* MirrorCharacter: Despite their [[{{Foil}} many differences]], Johnny and Daniel are revealed to have had very similar upbringings. Both lost their fathers at a young age, both turned to their karate senseis as a new father figure, and both considered Ali Mills to be their FirstLove. They also both consider high school to be their GloryDays, listen to 80's music, and constantly bring up old karate triumphs. Every time they talk, it becomes clear they have a lot in common, right up until circumstances put them [[IgnoredEpiphany back at each others' throats]]. Season 3 has Ali return, and she [[NotSoDifferentRemark blatantly tells Johnny and Daniel they're more similar to one another than they care to admit]], and that they see parts of themselves in each other [[ShadowArchetype that they don't like]].
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone:
** Johnny slowly starts to go through this during the tournament, seeing his students repeat his mistakes when he was under Kreese's tutelage, and even at one point sadly stares at a picture of Kreese, realizing their parallels. It doesn't get any better when the first season ends with [[spoiler:Kreese's return]].
** [[spoiler:Shares this with Daniel at the end of Season 2 due to the school brawl.]]
** [[spoiler:Johnny also realizes that bringing back Cobra Kai was a serious mistake, so he decides to branch away into his own dojo, the Eagle Fang. He also plans to rectify his mistake by joining his dojo with Daniel’s in order to shut down Cobra Kai for good.]]
** [[spoiler:After Miguel doesn't come back to finish his fight with Hawk and disapers in the season 4 finale, Johnny realizes that it's his fault for disregaurding what Miguel wants all season.]]
* MyGreatestFailure: He gets choked up telling Miguel that he missed Robby's birth, and promises he'll always be there for him. Miguel's hospitalization after Season 2 then sends him straight into a HeroicBSOD.
--> '''Johnny:''' I failed my kid on his first day in this world.
* MyGreatestSecondChance: Johnny's mentoring of Miguel is in his eyes his way of making up for failing Robby.
* NecessaryFail: Johnny's loss to Vidal in the 1981 tournament encouraged him to work harder so that he would never lose again.
* NeverMyFault: In the first season, Johnny recounts the events of the original film, and in both instances he downplays his own aggression towards Daniel to make himself out to have been the victim and Daniel the antagonist. [[spoiler:He gets over this attitude when Ali reunites with both men and forces them to acknowledge that they both bear some responsibility for what happened.]]
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:Letting Kreese teach at Cobra Kai again ruins his efforts to encourage his students to be less violent and aggressive and eventually leads to him losing both them and the dojo to Kreese.]]
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Upon hearing how bad Kreese's life has gotten he forgives him for the past and tries to help him back on his feet. Turns out Kreese was manipulating Johnny to steal his dojo from under him.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:O-Y]]
* OddFriendship: He seems to get along with Daniel's wife Amanda well, though he obviously disliked her initially since he said Daniel's whole family is rotten to the core and she obviously initially disliked him too and considered him an irritant because of how he was affecting her husband ... she even called Johnny an asshole. Whenever they hang out she (with the help of another woman) tend to ease the tension between him and her husband. In the third season she even hugs Johnny after a night of fun with him, Daniel and Ali.
* OfficialCouple: [[spoiler: After the ambiguity of their relationship status in the previous season, in Season 4, after a few misunderstandings, Johnny finally stops beating around the bush and confesses his love for Carmen, which she reciprocates. As of Episode 3, they're properly together.]]
* OnlyKnownByHisNickname: He does introduce himself formally to the All-Valley board as "John". Other than that, his name may as well really be Johnny.
* OpenMouthInsertFoot: His incredible lack of tact is probably second to [[TheCorruptor Kreese]], the thing that causes the most problems in his life.
* PetTheDog: Often bully Characters are portrayed as treating their lackeys with contempt but Johnny appears to genuinely consider the group his friends and is always respectful to them.
* PapaWolf: For Miguel, and Robby, despite the latter's dislike of him. [[spoiler:When he finds Miguel battered and bloodied from the fight at the [=LaRusso=] home, Johnny immediately heads off to confront Kreese. When he finds Robby wearing a Cobra Kai gi, he promptly starts wailing on his old sensei.]] He grows to become this for his students as a whole; messing with any of them when he's around is NOT a good idea. [[spoiler: This even extends to the Miyagi-Do students once he and Daniel decide to join forces.]]
* ParentalSubstitute: After spending so much time training with Miguel, the kid begins to see Johnny as a father figure and frequently turns to him for advice on topics such as dating girls, dealing with people, and how to navigate the world. It's reciprocated as, Johnny takes an active interest in Miguel's life and is always trying to steer him in the right direction. [[spoiler:After Miguel awakens from his coma, Johnny tells him he'd always be on his side and helps him learn to stand and walk again.]]
* PermaStubble: In the first episode, he possesses the unkempt down-on-your-luck variety. He shaves it off once he decides to resurrect the Cobra Kai dojo. It comes back in full force at the beginning of Season 3, which Johnny would also eventually shave off when he gets back to rebuilding his life [[spoiler:after losing his dojo to Kreese]].
* PetTheDog:
** After the All-Valley Tournament wraps up, Johnny approaches his son and apologizes to him over his own students using underhanded tactics to gain the upper hand. Robby lets it go and leaves with Daniel without further animosity.
** In the season 2 finale Johnny tells Robby that he isn't going to hide that Sam got drunk as Daniel has a right to know as her parent. This shows that for all their animosity Johnny is willing to be reasonable with Daniel when the situation calls for it.
* PingPongNaivete: He's aware of the #[=MeToo=] movement enough to try threatening Sid with exposing some of his older misdeeds, while still thinking a hashtag is called a hash''brown''.
* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Definitely. Politically incorrect? One of the first things he does is make judgmental remarks about Miguel based on his ethnicity, and shamelessly uses {{Gendered Insult}}s against guys. Hero? When Kyler and his goons attack Miguel, he steps in and delivers a righteous ass-kicking. That being said, CharacterDevelopment kicks in and he corrects Kreese about Miguel's ethnicity in Season 2; he's also a lot more open about letting female fighters join his team than he was in Season 1.
* PoorJudgeOfCharacter: His FatalFlaw, as the major events of the second season showed.
* APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil: {{Inverted}}. Perhaps from Kreese's view Johnny is this, but Johnny takes Cobra Kai's brutal doctrine and tries to teach in a way that is more positive and tolerant. He eventually breaks away from Kreese completely after it become clear that Kreese is determined to keep Cobra Kai as the degenerate ThugDojo it had been.
* QuickNip: When he and Daniel stopped at Daniel's old apartment while test-driving Johnny's soon-to-own Dodge Challenger, Johnny passively mentions seeing a bar around the corner and ropes Daniel into getting a drink with him. See FunctionalAddict.
* RagsToRiches: Downplayed. Starts off this series as a handyman living paycheck to paycheck and needing his rich stepfather to bail him out with money when needed. By the end of the season, he's doing well enough that he can pay back all the money his stepfather ever gave him.
* RatedMForManly: Firmly practices and preaches this and is practically inherent in Cobra Kai's philosophy. Many of Johnny's personal traits and beliefs are just manners of him asserting his masculinity and being a badass: answering most situations with violence, listening to rock music, driving American muscle cars, being a hit with the ladies,. etc.
* RebuiltPedestal: By the end of Season 3, [[spoiler:Hawk, Mitch, Bert, and a few others have returned to his tutelage after dealing with Kreese's mistreatment and realizing everything Johnny told them about the man is true.]]
* RedOniBlueOni: While they're both rather hot-headed and stubborn, Johnny serves as a headstrong and reckless Red Oni to Daniel's level-headed and rational Blue Oni.
* ReformedBully: Downplayed. Johnny is still a bit of a crude and ignorant {{Jerkass}}, but he is legitimately trying to do better with himself.
* TheResenter: Downplayed. He's initially this ways towards Daniel due to being a down on his luck handyman versus Daniel owning several car dealerships. However, once he turns his life around and becomes financially secure, he loses the resentment and even points out he would've left Daniel to live his own life, had he not tried to ruin Cobra Kai.
* RichesToRags: Johnny no longer has a trace of his privileged life as a teenager in this show. He's not too concerned about it as a FreezeFrameBonus of his drafted Facebook message to Ali reveals that he was never comfortable with the lifestyle in the first place. Miguel lampshades it when he finds out the truth from Daniel in Season 3.
--> '''Miguel:''' (incredulously) Sensei was a rich kid?
* RuleOfCool: {{Invoked}}. Johnny's life decisions all boil down to the ones that look or sound the most ''badass'' (which in his mind, firmly includes everything from TheEighties). However, his choices often makes him come across as TotallyRadical, such as using antiquated cultural references and outdated slang and naming his new karate school the [[AtrociousAlias garish]] "Eagle Fang".
* SchoolYardBullyAllGrownUp: In the 34 years between ''The Karate Kid'' and ''Cobra Kai'', Johnny Lawrence has hardly gotten any nicer. Worst of all, he's now all too aware of it. Johnny's main motivation in the beginning is to turn his dojo around and finally make something of his life, and he does gradually soften up and let his HiddenHeartOfGold peek out from time to time.
* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: He tears up and discards a check given to him by his stepfather, stating that he'd rather be homeless than accept financial support from someone who's been nothing but abusive to him. Later on, however, Johnny retrieves the same check and uses it to fund the opening of the new Cobra Kai dojo.
* SelfMadeMan: Downplayed. Though he had help in the form of his stepfather's check, Miguel's web savvy and the viral video of the lunchroom brawl with Kyler's posse, he managed to get Cobra Kai back up on pretty much nothing else. [[PyrrhicVictory And it won the All Valley Tournament!]]
* SenseiForScoundrels: Deconstructed in that although he doesn't intend to be an EvilMentor, he is still unconsciously reiterating what his own mentor Kreese taught him, with predictable results. Eventually, he sees the errors of his ways, and when he [[spoiler:opens Eagle Fang Karate, he makes a point of impressing on his students to be badass but not to be bullies, and to never be the one to throw the first punch in a fight.]]
* ShadowArchetype: It's clear that Johnny and Daniel both see each other as this. Johnny sees Daniel as the embodiment of his failure in the 1984 All Valley, which caused Kreese to turn on him and started the chain of events that led him to become a broken mess of an adult, while Daniel sees Johnny as a reminder of the bullying he suffered at his hands in high school, and of his own seduction by Cobra Kai in ''Film/TheKarateKidPartIII''. With both men associating each other with so many painful memories, it's almost impossible for them to admit how similar they really are.
-->'''Ali:''' [[NotSoDifferentRemark And the truth is, you guys are more alike than you want to admit]]. Maybe you recognize parts of yourselves in each other, and maybe you don't always like what you see.
* SinkOrSwimMentor: In the most literal way possible. He subjects his students to an intense {{training|from hell}} regimen and expects them to survive it on their own and without help. When trying to teach Miguel to use his legs he ties his hands and actually throws him into a pool so he can only use his legs to keep himself from sinking.
* SlobsVersusSnobs: Johnny's a scruffy, boorish and lazy Slob and Daniel's an affluent, cultured, diligent Snob.
* SourOutsideSadInside: Underneath his cantankerous and abrasive attitude, Johnny is shown to be deeply unhappy with his life and full of self-loathing at the beginning of the series since his bitter falling out with Kreese after the '84 tournament. Being TheAlcoholic doesn't do him any justice.
* SoProudOfYou:
** While he never uses the words, Johnny clearly feels this way towards Miguel, when he hears about the latter successfully beating up Kyler and his gang. He demonstrates it by [[PassingTheTorch giving Miguel the uniform he used to wear when he started training]].
** Taken up a notch by Season 3. He's far more open with his affection for Miguel, hugging him in the open multiple times. Also his Facebook account is almost primarily filled with moments with Miguel. [[LikeASonToMe It definitely shows how much Johnny has taken a parental role with him.]]
* SoccerHatingAmericans: When he sees Bobby watching soccer on TV in the hospital, he jokes that Tommy's illness is clearly worse than he thought.
* StatingTheSimpleSolution: When Eli brings up that he could be on the spectrum according to his doctor, Johnny tells him to "get off it". Johnny also tells him not to have a weird lip if he doesn't want to be addressed as "[[EmbarrassingNickname Lip]]".
* SurpassedTheTeacher: Johnny manages to beat Kreese twice, once at the beginning of Season 2 (while drunk no less) and again at the end of Season 3, showing that he has decisively surpassed his former sensei in terms of fighting capability.
* TestosteronePoisoning: Not as exaggerated as his student Hawk later becomes, but Johnny still practices the idea of dealing with everything in life "like a badass".
* TrademarkFavoriteDrink: '''Coors Banquet.''' For food: fried bologna and beef jerky.
* {{Troll}}: Has Miguel open the tournament with the Crane Kick solely because he knows how much Daniel will hate seeing the kid use his signature move. Likewise, he admits to Daniel that he organized the Cobra Kai demonstration just to upstage Miyagi-do.
* TookALevelInKindness: Starting up his own Cobra Kai dojo begins this process in Johnny, as he begins to care for and express compassion towards his students, becoming more tolerant and attentive in the process. When he undergoes a HeelRealization in Season 1's finale as HistoryRepeats during the tournament, he adjusts and tries to become an InternalReformist in an attempt to pull his students back from being in a ThugDojo. Unfortunately, he also allows [[ManipulativeBastard Kreese]] back in, thinking he's reformed...
* TwoDecadesBehind: He shows a shockingly high amount of ignorance about the internet for someone his age, not even knowing what Facebook is. His initial reaction to Aisha wanting to join the dojo also implies he isn't aware the US Army has allowed women to participate in combat.
* UngratefulBastard: He doesn't thank his stepfather for bailing him out of jail, instead bluntly questioning what he's doing in Johnny's apartment.
-->'''Johnny:''' What the hell are you doing in my apartment, Sid?\\
'''Sid:''' Oh, that's some "thank you".
* UnreliableNarrator: Johnny tells Miguel his version of his first encounter with Daniel, painting himself the victim and Daniel the villain, conveniently leaving out the other details of the encounter. In Season 3 when Miguel finally gets a chance to talk with Daniel, he fills in the blanks of what Johnny left out.
* UsedToBeASweetKid: A flashback shows that before joining Cobra Kai, Johnny was a shy kid who didn't have any friends and suffered verbal abuse from his stepdad on a daily basis. The dojo was the first place where he found acceptance, and taught him to adopt a tough and aggressive persona to protect himself.
* VillainsNeverLie: While he's not necessarily a villain, Johnny freely admits to all of his antagonistic actions during the course of the series like drawing the dick on Daniel's billboard or attacking Anoush to get information about Robby.
* VillainProtagonist: Downplayed. He goes from a secondary antagonist from the original film to the protagonist of his own series, but he bounces between AntiHero on his better days and WellIntentionedExtremist on his worse days.
* VitriolicBestBuds: [[PlayingWithATrope Played With.]] It's shown on multiple occasions that if he and Daniel could put their differences aside, they'd get along like a house on fire. However, a combination of PoorCommunicationKills and their interschool rivalry means that any moments of friendship end up being fleeting at best and they go back to being enemies. [[spoiler: They finally become this trope in earnest at the end of Season 3, when they bury the hatchet and join forces to defeat Kreese together.]]
* WaxOnWaxOff:
** An interesting example. Johnny makes Miguel clean the dojo, not with the intent of secretly training Miguel, but so the dojo can pass inspection. That said, all the manual work that Miguel had to do did seem to help Miguel get into shape for proper training.
--->'''Miguel:''' Hey, Sensei, is there any particular way you want me to wash these windows?\\
'''Johnny:''' Nah, I don't give a shit.
** Johnny's biggest deviation from Mr. Miyagi is his aversion to this. His training methods are harsh but he always makes sure to explain exactly what their purpose is to his students. As the All-Valley Tournament shows, it did them plenty of favors in the long run.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Season 2 makes it clear that as much as he fears and detests Kreese, he still places a lot of stock in his old sensei's approval.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: He genuinely wants to help his students overcome their problems, but echoing Kreese's methods turns them into the same types of bullies that he once was.
* WorthyOpponent: Proves to be a far better person than his EvilMentor.
* WouldHarmASenior: He doesn't hesitate to attack Miyagi after he steps in to defend Daniel. Miyagi, however, makes short work of Johnny and his friends.
* YouAreWhatYouHate: When Johnny has Kreese in a chokehold during their fight, he immediately has flashbacks to when Kreese did the same thing to him after losing the championship to Daniel all those years ago. The realization that he's acting like his old EvilMentor causes him to let go of the hold, although [[UngratefulBastard Kreese]] repays his mercy with a cheap shot.
* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe:
** He is shocked to discover that one of the teenagers who totaled his ride was Daniel [=LaRusso=]'s daughter, and later, when he learns that [[spoiler:his son chose to learn karate from his old enemy instead of him]].
** Johnny is also shocked that a kid Miguel's age has never heard of Music/GunsNRoses.
** His actual words when he finds out Robby has been training with Daniel, and that Robby has more respect for Daniel than he's ever shown for Johnny. Doubles as a TearJerker.
* YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: All he can do is look at [[spoiler:Kreese, his former mentor]], in complete silence when the latter compliments him for restoring Cobra Kai back to its former glory after winning the All Valley Tournament.
[[/folder]]
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