History Characters / TheKarateKidJohnnyLawrence

* 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 in ''Cobra Kai''.

* BeautyIsBad: A more conventionally handsome kid than Daniel, yet a bully. Averted in ''Cobra Kai'', when Johnny is still pretty good-looking for a man in his 50's, but has (somewhat) outgrown the bullying ways he exhibited as a teen.

* TrademarkFavoriteDrink: '''Coors Banquet.''' For food: fried bologna and beef jerky.

* BeautyIsBad: A more conventionally handsome kid than Daniel.

** 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".

* TheGadfly: While he TookALevelInKindness and forgave Daniel following the events of ''Part II'', he decides to act like he still holds a grudge as part of being a TricksterMentor and just to have a laugh.

* 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.]]
** This leads to Season 5. [[spoiler:Despite losing his ability to be a Sensei and Cobra Kai taking over the Valley, it's quite clear that Johnny is at peace with himself more than ever. He's able to completely mend the bond he has with Robby, retrieve Miguel from Mexico, and have a very loving relationship with Carmen, with a baby on the way to boot. He's even able to get Miguel and Robby to finally bury their own long-standing hatred, while also going the entire season keeping his friendship with Daniel without having their typical OnceASeason blowup. It's telling that he doesn't even enter the massive conflict during the season until halfway through. He does have a drunken rage moment as per usual, but one could argue it was goaded out by both Chozen and Mike's own drunken rage moments.]]

%%** Since Chozen and Johnny are shown interacting in the season 5 trailer, I think we can add the {{foil}} entry now.
** Johnny is also one to Chozen, [[ContrastingSequelAntagonist his direct successor in terms of Daniel’s rivals]]. Both him and Chozen develop [[HateAtFirstSight an intense dislike]] for [[TheHero Daniel]] but they show it in complete opposite ways: Johnny outwardly bullies Daniel despite the latter not even doing anything that bad (except hitting on Ali), which quickly devolves into a fight, while Chozen actually pretends to be [[FauxAffablyEvil quite civil and nice]] before subjecting Daniel to a CrushingHandshake to subtly assert his dominance over him. Johnny and his friends physically bully Daniel while Chozen verbally insults him and doesn’t resort to violence until Daniel, from his point of view, [[HonourRelatedAbuse insults his honour]]. On the flip side, Johnny is explicitly ordered by Kreese to leave Daniel alone until the tournament, whereas Chozen keeps on getting more and more physical with his bullying in the second act. While Johnny is a bully, he is horrified when his EvilMentor tells him to [[OrderedToCheat sweep the leg]] and when Daniel wins, he [[GracefulLoser congratulates him]]. Chozen, on the other hand, decides to fight Daniel to the death even when his mentor urges him to stop and in the end, chooses death when Daniel defeats him. While Johnny’s mentor was Kreese, because of whom he never found peace and [[NeverMyFault saw Daniel as the root of all his problems]], Sato gave Chozen another chance to prove himself, allowing Chozen to ultimately found peace and he [[ItsAllMyFault blamed himself for his failures]].

* Teenage Johnny's introduction to the series has him leading his crew on motorbikes to a beach party. One of his friends offers him a beer, which he declines and declares his intent on cleaning himself up for his senior year. From this, Johnny is shown to be an adrenaline junkie and social alpha with subtle hints to a HiddenHeartOfGold. When his friend Tommy points out his ex Ali getting friendly with the new kid Daniel, Johnny is [[HairTriggerTemper visibly vexed]] and goes to interrupt their socializing, further showing that he's a [[HotBlooded hot-head]] who is willing to fight for what's "his".
* 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]].

* 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.

* 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.

* 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]].

** 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 virulent 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. He also corrects Kreese on Miguel’s ethnicity.

* 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.

* 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").

* 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.

** 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.

* PoorJudgeOfCharacter: One of his {{Fatal Flaw}}s, as the major events of the second season showed. He allows Kreese back into his life under the belief that his former sensei has changed his ways for the better, except it works against him as Kreese remains the same ruthless sensei as he was back in the '80s, performing and showing acts of kindness only to get in his former star student's good graces and eventually claim control of Cobra Kai from him.

%%* NiceMeanAndInbetween: Of Daniels three Karate rivals, he's the Inbetween to Mike Barnes Nice and Chozen Toguchi's Mean.

* DrivesLikeCrazy: Johnny's driving makes you wonder if he has any DUIs or suspended licenses on his record. In one scene alone he drives fast, intentionally runs stop signs, rocks out to music on busy city streets, and the fact his car smells like beer implies he may have driven drunk or at the very least had an open can of beer in the car which is still illegal.

* CharClone: It's likely a coincidence, but Johnny has so many similarities to Char you have to wonder if it's at all intentional. He's blonde, was the ace rival of Daniel who now acts as a mentor to a younger generation of karate students, leads a revived version of the antagonist faction from the original ''Karate Kid'' film and has some unresolved issues with Daniel over a LoveTriangle they were both in. The only things he's lacking are a CoolMask and a red mobile suit.

* 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.

[[Characters/TheKarateKidDanielLaRusso Daniel [=LaRusso=]]] | '''Johnny Lawrence''' | [[Characters/TheKarateKidJohnKreese John Kreese]] | [[Characters/TheKarateKidTerrySilver Terry Silver]] | [[Characters/TheKarateKidMiguelDiaz Miguel Diaz]] | [[Characters/TheKarateKidRobbyKeene Robby Keene]] | [[Characters/TheKarateKidSamanthaLaRusso Samantha LaRusso]] | [[Characters/TheKarateKidEliMoskowitz Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz]] | [[Characters/TheKarateKidToryNichols Tory Nichols]] | [[Characters/TheKarateKidDemetriAlexopoulos Demetri Alexopoulos]]\\

** 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.

** 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.

* DefeatMeansFriendship: Downplayed. After losing to Daniel, he shows sportsmanship by personally handing his rival the 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, 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.

** 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.]]

* {{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.

** Johnny is one to Chozen, [[ContrastingSequelAntagonist his direct successor in terms of Daniel’s rivals]]. Both him and Chozen develop [[HateAtFirstSight an intense dislike]] for [[TheHero Daniel]] but they show it in complete opposite ways: Johnny bullies Daniel despite Daniel not even doing anything that bad (except hitting on Ali), which quickly devolves into a fight, Chozen actually pretends to be [[FauxAffablyEvil quite civil and nice]] and subjects Daniel to a CrushingHandshake to subtly assert his dominance over him. Johnny and his friends keep on physically bullying Daniel while Chozen keeps on verbally insulting Daniel and doesn’t resort to violence until Daniel, from his point of view, [[HonourRelatedAbuse insults his honour]]. On the flip side, Johnny is explicitly ordered by Kreese to leave Daniel alone till the tournament, whereas Chozen keeps on getting more and more physical with his bullying in the second act. While Johnny is a bully, he is horrified when his EvilMentor tells him to [[OrderedToCheat sweep the leg]] and when Daniel wins, he [[GracefulLoser congratulates him]]. Chozen, on the other hand, decides to fight Daniel to the death, even when his mentor tells him to stop and in the end, chooses death, when Daniel defeats him. While Johnny’s mentor was Kreese, because of whom, Johnny never found peace and [[NeverMyFault saw Daniel as the root of all his problems]], Sato gave Chozen another chance to prove himself, Chozen ultimately found peace and [[ItsAllMyFault blamed himself for his failures]].
* 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.]]

-->'''Johnny:''' All this new-age crap, like jiu-jitsu, taekwondo, they're all just cheap knockoffs of karate.

* 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.]]

** This is dropped completely in Season 5, albeit in an unexpected way. That being [[spoiler:there simply isn't any vitriol in the relationship anymore. When Daniel comes to him in a drunken rage, trying to conscript him to join the war and attempting to push his known BerserkButton Johnny instead calmly asks him what's going on and sits him down to talk. Daniel is almost immediately snapped out of the funk he had been in due to the act. For the entire season the two don't really mouth off to each other, and Johnny remains a constant pillar of support for Daniel through an incredibly harsh time.]]

** It's not just martial arts he excels at; Johnny is also a ''very'' skilled driver and surprisingly adept at infiltration (just look at how many times he got into the high school undetected). He's also proven to be a ''very'' good teacher. He's also very StreetSmart and can catch a con a mile away (hey Robby had to get it from somewhere).

* ActionDad: By the time of ''Cobra Kai'', Johnny has a teenage son named Robby. By Season 4, he's all but offically Miguel's stepfather. [[spoiler:By Season 5, he has another kid on the way.]]
* 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.

* 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.]]

** 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.

* NiceMeanAndInbetween: Of Daniels three Karate rivals, he's the Inbetween to Mike Barnes Nice and Chozen Toguchi's Mean.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:Well...sorta. He does end up in Silver's crosshairs after joining Daniel and Chozen's campaign against him, but Season 5 shows a man who's fully healed from his downward spiral as he is introduced in Season 1. He's maintained a loving relationship with Carmen (with a baby on the way), fully repaired the damages he had with both Robby and Miguel (even better, end the rivalry between the two boys), and even go as far as to clean his apartment. It's really telling in Season 5 fifth episode when Daniel comes into Johnny's apartment as a hot mess, whereas Johnny on the other hand has maintained peace and healing in his life]]. [[spoiler:That being said, he still has the Sekai Taikai to deal with, alongside his worst enemy now out of prison]].

* 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.

* 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 Cobra 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. In 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]]. [[spoiled:That being said, he does end up repairing his relationship with his son, Robby, which gets better by Season 5]].

* 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 Cobra 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. In 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]].

** Subtle, but by Season 5, likely due to living with Carmen, Rosa and Miguel, he seems to have picked up Spanish. He may not ''speak'' it fluently, but he can understand it fine, as demonstrated in conversations with Rosa.