History Characters / TheKarateKidJohnnyLawrence

* OddFriendship: He gets along surprisingly well with Daniel's wife Amanda. It helps that both are {{Deadpan Snarker}}s, 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, considering him an irritant because of how he was affecting her husband ... she even called Johnny an asshole. And that whenever they hang out, Amanda (and Carmen) tends 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.

* 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.]]

----

* 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...

!!!'''Played by:''' Creator/WilliamZabka, Owen D. Stone ([[Recap/CobraKaiS1E6Quiver 1979 flashback]]), Thomas Parobek ([[Recap/CobraKaiS4E4Bicephaly early 1970s flashback]])

* FreudianTrio: Among Daniel's former rivals he's the Id. Johnny is the most impulsive and tends to be rather reactive at any real or perceived slight inflicted on him. Post redemption he's the one that struggles the most with his vices, but beneath his grouchy behavior he's also very passionate. He demonstrates some possitive aspects as he's very honest with what he feels and believes and tries to improve himself and the people around him over time while also eventually open to learn from the mistakes.

* RightForTheWrongReasons: In Season 4 of ''Cobra Kai'', Johnny ends up being in the right in continuing to insist on the students of Miyagi-do and Eagle Fang learning both styles when the return of Terry Silver spooks Daniel into insisting on just Miyagi-do. However, as he later admits the primary motive for this insistence was an unfounded jealous fear that only learning Miaygi-do would push Miguel into viewing Dnaiel as a father figure over him.

* 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.]]

!!!'''Played by:''' William Zabka, Owen D. Stone ([[Recap/CobraKaiS1E6Quiver 1979 flashback]]), Thomas Parobek ([[Recap/CobraKaiS4E4Bicephaly early 1970s flashback]])

* TheInternetIsForPorn: After getting his first PC (ever), the first thing Johnny tries out is web searching "hot babes". Johnny however has since mainly used the web to look up information on how to deal with many his situations such as how to break it to Miguel that he was in a relationship with his mother and basics on baby-rearing (the former of course redirects him to more porn because of how Johnny worded his search: "how to tell my student I'm banging his mom?").

** Johnny was angry about Daniel being a father-figure to his son, even peeing on the [=LaRusso=] license plate of his car in retaliation, even though Johnny constantly neglected Robby his whole life. It's huge hypocrisy since Johnny pays more attention to Miguel and feels as if it's different. He attempts to fix this later on and fully acknowledges his hypocrisy [[spoiler:when he reconciles with Robby in the season 4 finale.]]

** Johnny says he never knew his real dad (and apparently never discussed it with Laura). Sid makes a couple of remarks to the effect of "at least I stuck around".

** 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.

** 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, and immediately, drops this idea. He also corrects Kreese on Miguel’s ethnicity.

* HardWorkFallacy: Johnny occasionally suffers from this. He's a dedicated and dogged hard-worker when truly commited, but his ignorance and lack of worldly awareness tend to derail his efforts at making things better for himself, such as his Cobra Kai having a pretty delayed revival because of Johnny's antiquated ideas on advertisement and abrasive teaching methods that drove away many of his first batch of students and being unable to realize that Kreese hadn't changed his ways despite having plenty of reasons to at least be suspicious.

** 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 drops this idea. He also corrects Kreese on Miguel’s ethnicity.

** Finally subverted as of Season 5, as Johnny manages to repair his relationships with Robby and Miguel and their relationship with each other, and overall becomes the more well-adjusted hero of the show as Daniel starts to fall off the deep end thanks to Silver's manipulations. However, he still impulsively particpates in an insane plan to attack Silver in his own home, and only saves himself from certain death with one hell of a HeroicSecondWind.

* 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.

** 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.

** He and Shannon seem to be becoming this in Season 3, though anything would seem more amicable compared to the way they were before.

* InternetIsForPorn: After getting his first PC (ever), the first thing Johnny tries out is web searching "hot babes". Johnny however has since mainly used the web to look up information on how to deal with many his situations such as how to break it to Miguel that he was in a relationship with his mother and basics on baby-rearing (the former of course redirects him to more porn because of how Johnny worded his search: "how to tell my student I'm banging his mom?").

* 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.

* MadeOfIron: Perhaps one of the best traits he has is his physical fortitude. Best shown in Season 5, despite the severe beating by the Cobra Kai senseis, once fueled enough Johnny is immediately able to stand up and return the pain against them.

* 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]]".

** To Daniel in ''Film/TheKarateKid1984'', being his bully and main rival leading up to the 1984 All-Valley. His jealousy of Daniel charming Ali away from him is why Daniel decides to learn karate from Mr. Miyagi, ultimately leading up to Johnny's defeat and eventual downfall. When ''Series/CobraKai'' comes around, Johnny (in his 50s) still has resentment to Daniel, now that the latter has lived up to his All-Valley success by having the rich lifestyle that Johnny himself couldn't maintain after his loss. Their animosity eventually becomes mutually re-ignited when Johnny triggers Daniel's bad memories by re-opening Cobra Kai and Daniel himself re-opening Miyagi-Do in response — to the point where it leads to catastrophic results coming from their students by the end of Season 2. While they continue to clash in karate philosophies despite having positive moments together, they finally come to an accord for good in Season 4 and 5 — especially when they have a mutual enemy like Kreese and Silver to deal with.

** However, no one elicits more hatred from Johnny than his EvilMentor, Kreese, who was arguably responsible for his downfall after nearly choking him to death for losing in the All-Valley — resulting in Johnny himself losing all respect for his sensei and seeing the match in a different perspective. Johnny clearly wants to steer Cobra Kai away from Kreese's influence after seeing what it did in his life, but this becomes more personal when Kreese himself reappears in Johnny's life and seizes the dojo from him after getting on to Johnny's good graces as his co-sensei by pretending to be a changed man for the better. Johnny has fought against Kreese multiple times throughout the series, even proving himself to be the better fighter, but ultimately losing — either because he was showing a little too much mercy in their first bout, or that he was distracted while he was tending to Robby in their second bout.

* UnknownRival: Robby, mind you his ''own son'', clearly hates Johnny after years and years of abandoning him out of shame, and this only gets worse when Miguel enters in both of their lives. Johnny on the other hand, regrets everything he did for Robby and had made strides to improve his relationship with him (which succeeds by the end of Season 4 and throughout Season 5). This is especially shown in their Season 3 fight when Robby fuels all of his rage toward his father, who isn't even ''trying'' to attack him, and only has nothing but sorrow for what he has become under Kreese.

* 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.