Characters / The Karate Kid: Eli Moskowitz

The Karate Kid Main Character Index
Daniel LaRusso | Johnny Lawrence | John Kreese | Terry Silver | Miguel Diaz | Robby Keene | Samantha LaRusso | Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz | Tory Nichols | Demetri Alexopoulos | Kyler Park
Dojos and Others
Miyagi-Do and Associates | Cobra Kai and Associates | Eagle Fang and Associates | The LaRusso Family | Other Characters

Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz

"It's time to uncage the Hawk."

Played By: Jacob Bertrand

Appearances: Cobra Kai

"Let me let you in on a little secret. It's not just the haircut or the back tattoo. It's a way of life, man. You just gotta feel the energy and just live in the moment."

Yet another victim of bullying at West Valley High thanks to a notable scar leftover from surgery to treat a cleft palate. Eli takes Johnny's advice to change his entire look, donning a mohawk and tattoos to become "Hawk." He becomes a top student of Cobra Kai until he defects to Eagle Fang midway through the LaRusso house fight. In Season 4, after he is assaulted by Cobra Kai students and given a Traumatic Haircut, he quits karate for good, until Demetri motivates him. This results in him joining Miyagi-Do instead.

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A-F

• 10-Minute Retirement: After having his mohawk shaved off by Cobra Kai in Season 4, Hawk completely loses his confidence and declares that he's done with karate, which lasts for less than a full episode before a pep talk from Demetri convinces him to return to Miyagi-Do.
• The Ace: Hawk effectively becomes this for the Miyagi-Do dojo in Season 4. Upon having his true Heel Realization after the Cobra Kai students shaved his mohawk, Hawk decides he doesn't want to return to learning under Johnny since he reasons that was what led him down that path in the first place. Demetri eventually recruits him to learn under Miyagi-Do, and he ultimately ends up winning the males competition. His victory is attributed to being one of the only fighters to have learned from Cobra Kai, Eagle Fang, and Miyagi-do, making him a match for Robby — who had also studied at both Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do.
• Affectionate Nickname: Johnny gives him the "Hawk" moniker after being impressed with the way he decided to take Johnny's advice to heart and change his look and attitude.
• Always Second Best: In terms of skill and dojo hierarchy, Hawk is this in Seasons 1-3 and the first half of Season 4. In Cobra Kai from Seasons 1-2, he is this to Miguel skill-wise but in a hierarchical sense, uses the students under him (particularly Mitch, Doug and Mikey) to call the shots more compared to Miguel, who has no interest in the karate gang-war between Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do. After Miguel's injury and leaving Cobra Kai in Season 3, Hawk was the best fighter and initially led the students until Kreese's favoritism towards Tory and Robby along with the latter proving himself with the snake heist made it all but clear that Hawk was reduced to a pawn rather than a leader. In Season 4 in Eagle Fang, Hawk was still considered the second-best student after Miguel. It's averted as of the end of Season 4 and Season 5 where Hawk is now a student of Miyagi-Do and considered on par with Robby, who rejoins the dojo.
• Ambiguously Jewish: Has a very typical Ashkenazi name, but it's never made clear whether he practices the religion.
• Animal Motif: He fits his avian theme well being one of Cobra Kai's top students while also being it's most aggressive. He's also one of the lightest and most slender of the teenage fighters (even Tory probably has a few pounds on him), making him very fast and good at jumping attacks.
• Armor-Piercing Response: Johnny chews out on Hawk for making an illegal move which leads to his disqualification. Hawk, however, walks off unfazed with a remark which leaves Johnny stunned and speechless.
  Johnny: What the hell are you thinking, man?
  Hawk: What was I supposed to do, be a pussy?
• Atrocious Alias: He gets a fake ID for the purposes of buying alcohol. His moniker of choice? Walter Hawkman.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Although this is inherent in Cobra Kai's mindset, Hawk becomes a particularly exaggerated case by the second season. He wastes no time going on the offensive when he catches up to and corners Demetri during the school brawl, relentlessly assaulting his opponent while Demetri persistently endures Hawk's blows.
  • Subverted in Season 3, where Hawk was taught by Kreese to "fight smart". Now, he actually takes the time to stop and analyze his opponents during a battle. This probably helped him decide to leave Cobra Kai and save his real friends.
  • Eli plays with this trope both ways in Season 4. During his matchup with Kyler, his last two winning points are the result of Eli anticipating Kyler doing this, kicking Kyler down twice thus winning the match. And during the finals bout against Robby, Daniel instructs Eli to be more aggressive to frustrate Robby, which he does. This results in Robby attempting a flying kick which Eli easily anticipates and counters, tying the matchup at 1-1.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • Throughout Season 2 and 3, Hawk views Demetri as such — arguably as a result of Cobra Kai's (and Kreese's) philosophy corrupting his mindset. He relentlessly bullies him for disrespecting Cobra Kai (justified, as Demetri was viciously assaulted by Kreese) and continuing to embrace his nerdy side, which culminates in their fight at West Valley High and Hawk breaking Demetri's arm during their bout at Golf N' Stuff. However, it's the latter event that plays a role in Hawk slowly undergoing a Heel–Face Turn, which reaches its peak when he defects from Cobra Kai to save Demetri from potentially repeating that event again. By Season 4 and 5, they go back to being Best Friends, certainly helps that Demetri has Easily Forgiven him after everything Hawk did in the past.
  • However a more straight example would be Kyler Park, and this dates back long before the events of Cobra Kai. Kyler relentlessly bullies Eli because of the scar on his lip, which prompts the latter to join Cobra Kai after Miguel gives Kyler a beatdown. As a matter of fact, it's Kyler's bullying of Eli that molds Hawk into becoming just as bad as a bully that Kyler was to him (if not worse). Kyler himself joining Cobra Kai basically puts Hawk in a position to badly beat up his (now-former best friend) Brucks out of rage for their bullying towards him, and ends up being a contributing factor to Hawk defecting from Cobra Kai (especially when Kyler gets all happy with Hawk for Cobra Kai having the advantage in the LaRusso House Fight). Kyler and Eli end up facing against each other a few times after the latter joins to the Miyagi-Fangs, first in the All-Valley quarterfinals (where Eli shuts Kyler out fairly quickly), and second in the Final Battle at Terry's flagship dojo (where Eli calls Kyler out for continuing to be a bully and not learning anything from his beatdowns). And in spite of all that, he continues to use his go-to "Lip" insult on Eli.
• Awesome, but Impractical: By Season 2, it's more than just how he fights — Hawk handles everything in the most "badass" ways possible, regardless of efficacy.
• Ax-Crazy: Hawk is a temperamental figure due to his insecurity issues that stem from his experiences in getting bullied. As a result, he is prone to acting out of extreme frustration and rage whenever something is angering him or if he is caught up in the heat of battle. This is best shown in his brutal beatdown on Brucks where Hawk mercilessly punches him 10 times while roaring in rage.
• Badass Decay: In-Universe. At the beginning of Season 3, Hawk learns that the combination of Demetri revealing his embarrassing secrets (particularly his bedwetting) at Moon's party and Demetri defeating him in the school brawl has caused his street cred to plummet. When he tries flirting with a group of freshmen girls, they laugh him off because of this. He gets it back though after winning the All-Valley Tournament.
• Bash Brothers: After he and Demetri reconcile, the two prove to be a highly effective fighting team as they dispatch several Cobras with their combined skills.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: Goes from a shy, awkward bullied kid to an arrogant, reckless bully. Most exemplified by his interactions with Chris and Mitch, calling them names like "Assface One and Assface Two," belittling them, and forcing them into the role of his lackeys under the guise of "toughening them up into proper Cobra Kai material." This plays a big part in Chris's defecting to Miyagi-Do. Season 3 has him finally realize what he's become and he quits Cobra Kai to rejoin his friends.
• Berserk Button: Pretty much any perceived slight gets a huge overreaction.
  • Don't even think about insulting his mohawk or his Lip unless you want him to royally fuck you up.
  • Never say anything bad about Cobra Kai unless you want the shit beaten out of you.
• The Berserker: Eli's transformation is more than skin deep, as he proves at the All Valley Tournament. His fighting style is aggressive and violent to the point where it stands out even among the Cobra Kai students. His matches consist of him overwhelmingly his opponents with furious flurries of attack, and he only loses when he plows past the ref during a timeout to attack Robby in a fit of rage. It winds up being deconstructed in Season 2, as Kreese's influence increases his ego and aggression to the point that he becomes sloppier, to the point where Demetri is able to beat him in a one-on-one fight.
  • Subverted in Season 3, where Hawk learns from his mistakes and Kreese teaches him to "fight smart". Ironically, this manages to turn him into a much more dangerous opponent throughout Season 3... and likely contributes to the analysis of his situation that ends with him pulling a Heel–Face Turn.
• Big Brother Instinct: He joins the rest of Miyagi-Fang and Tory in protecting Anthony LaRusso in the Season 5 Finale from Cobra Kai, while Anthony is uploading a video exposing Silver's bribery to the dojo.
• Blood Knight: The all-out school brawl on the students' first day back at West Valley High School gets Hawk fired up - he wades through Bert and Nathaniel squaring up and starts assaulting random Miyagi-Do students.
  Hawk: Oh it is ON!!! (Pushes Bert and Nathaniel and starts attacking Miyagi-Do students) YEAH!!!!
• Broken Ace: He's the only other fighter who's in a league with Miguel and Robby. However, his past trauma has resulted in him having a lot of emotional issues that hamper his abilities and causes him to lose fights to opponents he should be able to beat. He finally breaks out of this in Season 4 and becomes The Ace.
• Bully Hunter: Becomes this in Season 5 as he only engages Cobra Kai when he sees them bullying others.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: The aggressive, cocky and short-tempered brooding boy to Moon's pacifistic and kind gentle girl.
• Can't Take Criticism: He reacts very violently whenever someone dares to criticize him or the things he cares about. His hair, his dojo, and his old hobbies. It's justified in his case because he feels personally attacked, stemming back from the days where he was mercilessly bullied, as seen in his flashback.
• Casanova Wannabe: In Season 3, he tries to put the moves on a group of freshman girls, only to get laughed off and made fun of because they know about his bedwetting.
• Character Development: In spades. Early in Season 1, he's a sweet, shy, nerdy kid. As Hawk, he steadily grows more confident, but under Kreese during Seasons 2 and 3, he becomes much more vicious and ruthless, culminating in deliberately breaking Demetri's arm. However, afterwards, he remains harsh but is still visibly questioning himself, and turns his back on Cobra Kai at the end of Season 3. Afterwards, he loses a lot of his cocky persona, but with encouragement from Demetri and Moon, not to mention the rest of the Miyagi-Dos, Eli comes to embrace his best self—badass, but not a bully. Throughout seasons 4 and 5, he is humbled a few times, but also develops inner strength because of it. In the season 5 finale, he gives Kyler a blistering speech laying out the difference between them.

  Kyler: Yeah, you heard Kenny when he dropped your ass. Just a Faux-Hawk now, boy.
  Eli: You know what? That's life. You win some, you lose some, but you gotta move on. You never did. You're still pulling the same old bully act as always. Even though everyone you bullied has kicked your ass by now.

• Clark Kenting: Despite doing nothing to change or disguise his face, Hawk's overall change in appearance and demeanor after getting his mohawk is so drastic that people who don't know him personally don't immediately realize that Hawk and Eli Moskowitz are the same person. When Demetri begins his "toast" to Eli at Moon's, many people can be seen asking who that is before he clarifies that he means Hawk. Upon recognizing him as "the kid with the lip" at the Cobra Kai dojo, Kyler says that he thought he had moved away, despite the fact that they've still been going to school together the entire time.
• Closet Geek: Since adopting his "Hawk" persona, Hawk starts pretending he hates "nerdy" things in order to look tough and also projects that onto Demetri, mocking him for being a "pussy" because he likes "nerd shit." When Demetri tries to make up with him by talking about Doctor Who, he quickly becomes engaged in the conversation and briefly forgets to maintain that front.
• Co-Dragons: He shares the role of Kreese's top enforcer with Tory for most of Season 3 until Robby joins Cobra Kai and becomes Kreese's clear favorite.
• Combat Pragmatist: Even when fighting for Miyagi-Do, he's not above grabbing Robby's loose gi to pull him in for an attack in their All Valley final match.
• Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are: In the Season 2 finale, Hawk chases Demetri to the computer lab and taunts him to come out.
  Hawk: Demetri, I know you're in here. Figured you'd hide in the computer lab, you damn NERD!
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Hawk's transformation is radical but mostly played for laughs. That is, until we actually see him fight at the All-Valley Tournament and the full extent of both his skill and savagery become clear.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: He's one of the few characters in the series to have been trained in both Miyagi-do and Cobra Kai karate. As such, when he fights Robby (another character who has experience in both styles) at the All-Valley Tournament's male bracket finals, he's actively encouraged by Daniel to use what he's learned on both fronts to win - which he does.
• Dark Horse Victory: His victory on the male division of the 2019 All Valley Tournament at the end of Season 4, as the main Story Arc was building up on the Miguel-Robby rematch until the twist in the penultimate episode.
• The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: His arc over Seasons 2 and 3. Kreese's influence turns him into a bullying thug and he completely forgets that the entire reason he took up karate was so he and his friends could defend themselves from their own bullies. Thankfully, he finally realizes what he's become and he rejoins the protagonists so they can take down Kreese and Cobra Kai once and for all.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • During a timeout, he cheap kicks Robby on the back in a fit of rage because the latter talked smack about his mohawk.
  • He confronts Demetri for leaving a 1-star review for Cobra Kai on Yelp, tries to intimidate him into taking it down, and straight-up assaults him when he refuses. Later that day, Moon breaks up with Hawk, as she is appalled that he would resort to violence over a Yelp review.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Once he gets his new nickname from Johnny, he insists everyone else use it and refuses to use his real name for anything, including registering for the All-Valley Tournament. By the end of Season 4, he realizes he doesn't need the nickname anymore and goes back to using his real name.
• Don't Tell Mama: Even though he adopts a "bad boy" persona, it's clear he will drop it the second he thinks his parents will punish him for any misdeeds. In Season 1, he mentions he can't walk around at home shirtless anymore because he doesn't want them finding out about his tattoo. In Season 2, Aisha boasts on her Instagram story that Hawk tried to buy alcohol with a fake ID, and Hawk quickly tells her to stop since his parents follow her, causing her to immediately apologize to them.
• The Dragon: He becomes one of the top students of Kreese's Cobra Kai dojo following the school brawl at the end of Season 2. After being one of the main leader in raids on Miyagi Do's students, the guilt of fighting his former friends with Kreese favoring Tory and Robby over him makes him change sides.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Season 4 sees him mending all of his friendships, regaining Moon's affections, finally taking down Kyler after all the shit he gave him as early as Season 1, and winning the All Valley male division against Cobra Kai.
• Easily Forgiven: After everything he did to Demetri, including breaking his arm, all seems to be well between the two of them after Hawk just apologizes. The fact that Hawk just saved him from getting his arm rebroken probably helps, and the necessity of teaming up in such a dire situation. However, it's subverted later on when it's shown that while Demetri and Miguel have forgiven him, everyone else still resents him for everything he did as a Cobra Kai.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Because of the scarring on his lip which formed from a surgery performed on his cleft lip, his tormentors take to addressing him as "Lip".
• Embarrassing Tattoo: Instantly gains one by revealing he's had Moon's name and a crescent moon put on his chest — right when she's about to break up with him for being a bully and threatening Demetri. Season 3 showed he coped by having it turned into the scythe of a grim reaper. It sort of becomes one again in Season 4 when he commits himself to Miyagi-do and rekindles his relationship with Moon so in Season 5, he decides to cover it up with a whole new tattoo depicting a lotus flower to symbolize his fresh start, which Moon approves of.
• Et Tu, Brute?: How he views Demetri criticizing the Cobra Kai dojo.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • If you watch his face in the background of the school brawl, even he's visibly shocked when Rickenberger decks a teacher.
  • An earlier example would be in "Mercy". This is the episode Hawk starts going off the deep end, but he shows the most concern for Johnny's well-being when Bert tells him about Johnny's drunken meltdown and immediately assumes the worst.
  • For everything he has done, including turning his back on Demetri for being a 'pussy', he still cares deeply for Miguel. He was just as shocked as everyone else at what happened to Miguel in the brawl and was even the first person to approach his body. Plus, blaming Johnny for Miguel showing mercy to Robby, and there's a possibility he does this to hide his guilt for being partially responsible for the fight.
  • In Season 3, he shows hesitance when he's encouraged to break Demetri's arm. While he proceeds with the action and plays it off with his fellow Cobras, he looks on the crying Demetri with regret and refuses to repeat the action again in the house brawl, switching sides and reconciling with his former friend.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Gets several over the course of the series.
  • In Season 1, he shaves the sides of his head and styles the middle into a blue mohawk to show he's decided to "flip the script" and embrace the Cobra Kai way of becoming badass.
  • In Season 2, he changes the color from blue to red around the same time he has completed his transformation into a bloodthirsty bully who will even attack his friends for any perceived slights.
  • Early in Season 4, he changes the color again from red to purple once he has become recommitted to his friends and stops being a bully. When Moon says purple is linked to the crown chakra and represents enlightenment, Eli replies that's what he was going for, but it nicely symbolizes the fusion of his initial badassery learned from Johnny's Cobra Kai and the sensitive young man he used to be. Purple being a combination of blue and red, it also symbolizes his willingness to turn his back on his time as a brutal bully, but his actions during that time have yet to be forgiven or forgotten.
  • Later in Season 4, after the Cobra Kais sneak attack him and shave off his mohawk, he's forced to shave his whole head into a crew cut. At first, it sends him into a Heroic BSoD as his look was what gave him confidence, but by the end, it shows how he's learned he doesn't need the Hawk persona to be confident. It also marks the start of others accepting the sincerity of his Heel–Face Turn, and his commitment to atoning for his recent behavior.
  • Season 5 plays with it. While he changes his hairstyle and color several times during the season, it's not because of any trauma or significant changes in his personality. He's comfortable with who he is now and is just having trouble finding a look that fits.
• Expy: His hairstyle and flashy demeanor may have been inspired by Wu Ping from the 2010 remake, while his tattoo and arc in season 4 could serve as a tribute to Angel, Julie’s pet hawk from The Next Karate Kid.
  • The former is seemingly confirmed during his match against Kenny, when he slicks his mohawk in a similar manner to Wu Ping.
• Fatal Flaw: His insecurity, before his insecurity made him depressed and self-hating. After taking on the moniker Hawk, it doesn't get any better. He takes any grievance in his life, justified or not, in the worst way possible and leads him to destructive actions.
  • Taking Robby's Trash Talk way more personally than Robby intended leads him to be disqualified when he dislocated Robby's shoulder at the All Valley Under 18 Tournament.
  • He takes Demetri's review extremely personally and assaults him at the mall for it. When Moon finds out and breaks up with him, he initially responds by taking out his anger on a dummy, and gets easily manipulated by Kreese into vandalizing Miyagi-Do and stealing the Medal of Honor.
  • Demetri reveals all of Hawk's secrets at a party; while his anger is fully justified at the time, it causes him to lose focus, which costs him the ensuing fight.
  • By Season 4, he suffers from this again after the Cobras sneak attack him and shave off his mohawk, sending him into a Heroic BSoD and believing he lost his confidence without it. It takes Demetri convincing him to join Miyagi-Do which helps improve his skillset but he still suffers from lack of confidence at the beginning of the All-Valley tournament. With Moon giving him a pep talk and kissing him, he realizes he always had that confidence and uses all the lessons he learned from all three dojos to win the All-Male division against Cobra Kai during the tournament.
  • Come Season 5, he's overcome this insecurity as part of his Character Development. When Kenny defeats him during the Sekai Taikai preliminaries and leads the other Cobras in calling him a "Faux-Hawk", he refuses to take the bait and lash out violently (although the fact that he's severely winded after Kenny used the "Silver Bullet" on him also played a part). When Kyler later brings this loss up to mock him in the final fight at the Cobra Kai dojo, Hawk, in a sign of how he's matured from the angry, frustrated kid he was, simply states that that's life, and wins or losses are just part of it.
• Foil:
  • To Demetri in general. The two start out as best friends, with Demetri being a mouthy Insufferable Genius while Eli is a Shrinking Violet who prefers to let Demetri do all the talking. Demetri discourages Miguel's attempts to stand up to Kyler, feeling he's better off keeping his head down and avoiding bullies, while Eli is impressed by his bravery. When the two join Cobra Kai, Demetri is put off by Johnny's Training from Hell and quits, while Eli embraces it and takes on the "Hawk" persona. Demetri is Proud to Be a Geek, while Hawk tries to bury his nerdy past, and starts to view Demetri as the embodiment of everything he hates about himself. In terms of their fighting style, Hawk focuses on attack, while Demetri is almost purely defensive.
  • To Miguel, as they represent the best and worst possible outcomes of following Johnny's original Cobra Kai philosophy. Miguel gains confidence, becomes a good fighter and a leader among his peers (but due to the philosophy being inherently flawed, he also became more aggressive and angry and a borderline bully). Hawk gains confidence and becomes a good fighter as well, but this is often overshadowed by the negative traits he's picked up: aggression, anger, bullying behavior. While Miguel chooses to follow Johnny's Internal Reformist attitude, Hawk takes to Kreese's old Cobra Kai mindset and, while he refuses to acknowledge it, his life begins to suffer. His ego and aggression spiral out of control to the point he loses his girlfriend, strains his friendships with Demetri and Miguel, and loses several karate fights. The only good thing that comes out of it for him is that he emerges from the school brawl relatively unscathed, unlike Miguel.
  • To Tory in Season 3. Both of them remain with Cobra Kai after Kreese steals the dojo. But while Tory continues to fall deeper into Kreese's teachings, accepts all of the changes he makes, and remains loyal, Hawk begins to question the decisions he's making, finally sees the man for what he is, and makes a Heel–Face Turn at the end. Hawk, Miguel's best friend, continues to prove his loyalty to him by visiting him in the hospital and ultimately quitting Cobra Kai partly because of Kreese allowing Robby, who injured him in the first place, to join, while Tory, Miguel's girlfriend, proves she cares more about the dojo than him by failing to visit him, dumping him when he calls her out on it, and welcoming Robby immediately, even convincing him to stay when Robby initially had no intention of joining.
  • He's also this to his girlfriend/ex-girlfriend Moon. While Moon starts out as part of the popular clique whereas Eli was a bullied, unpopular student, both are the more submissive friends to their mouthier counterparts (Moon to Yasmine, Eli to Demetri) prior to their character development (Moon becoming an overly nice person, Eli "flipping the script" to become the more confident Hawk). However while Moon started out as a Peer-Pressured Bully who eventually became a Nice Girl after atoning for her (and Yasmine's) treatment of Aisha, Eli starts out as a bullied victim before becoming The Bully himself. Moon hates all forms of violence and wants everyone to get along, whereas Hawk relishes a good fight regardless of whether he's acting as a good guy or a bad guy.
• Freudian Excuse: Eli is depicted as a victim of bullying in the first half of Season 1 and as shown in a flashback in Season 2, he feels as if his mother doesn't fully understand the situation regarding his low self-esteem and depression. Much of these events are the reasons why Hawk is eager to display his confidence and brutal nature much later on.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: He was the meekest and most bullied of Miguel's group of friends, but after undergoing the Cobra Kai training, he becomes a brutal bloodthirsty thug that (alongside Tory) embraces the worst of Cobra Kai's tendencies.

G-N

• Gendered Insult: He calls Chris, during a shift at Golf 'n Stuff, a "good girl" when he demands a bobblehead from the prize counter.
  "Why don't you be a good girl and grab us one of those bobbleheads?"
• Genius Bruiser: Season 3 onward. Originally, Hawk fought as The Berserker during Season 2. This fighting style often left him open to attack, resulting in Hawk losing most of his fights throughout the season. Learning from his mistakes in Season 3, Hawk internalized Kreese's lesson to "fight smart" and becomes a much more formidable opponent when using both his brains and brawn. Funny enough, Kreese's lesson Gone Horribly Right when Hawk stops to analyze his situation, and realized he is fighting for the wrong side. Season 4 continues this as he shows off his engineering and design skills to build a sparring deck for the Miyagi-do and Eagle Fangs to use for training.
• Glass Cannon: In Season 1, this wasn't so much the case. He was able to complement all of his offense capacities (which were plenty) with some staunch defense, as shown when he blocked several of Robby's attacks during the tournament. But come Season 2, this trope comes into full force. He becomes poorer and poorer on defense and often leaves himself wide open for a simple counter. Hell, even Demetri, who had almost no fighting skills to speak of in the first season, was able to take him down with one well-timed shot that sent him into the glass door of a trophy cabinet and was evidently out for the rest of the school brawl.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Played with throughout the story. Initially, Eli's facial scarring is used to make him seem more vulnerable and shy, emphasizing his position as the meekest and most gentle of Miguel's friends. Once he becomes Hawk though, it serves to make him even more intimidating.
• Gone Horribly Right: After Kreese kicks out the bunch that sympathized with Clarence the hamster, Hawk offers up the idea of getting new recruits with Miyagi-Do shutting down. Kreese does exactly that, except the recruits consisted of Kyler, Brucks, and Robby — three of Hawk's worst enemies. This is just one of contributing factors that leads to Hawk's eventual defection. To add insult to the injury, Kreese even outright states that it was Hawk who suggested they get new recruits.
• Graceful Loser: After Miguel comes up to him to apologize for the Coyote Creek debacle, Hawk is remarkably cool about the whole ordeal.
  Hawk: Enemies for a day, Cobra Kai for life.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: By Season 2, Hawk has grown to have a very bad temper as he spends more time with Cobra Kai and can lose his cool over anything, even going as far as to vandalize Miyagi-Do's dojo and attack Demetri because he feels they have insulted him.
• Harem Seeker: By the end of Season 2, Hawk boasts about wanting to build a "full rotation" for himself by the summer midterms. It doesn't work out, as his in-universe Badass Decay following his involvement in the school brawl drives girls away. He finally outgrows it in Season 4 as he becomes more confident in himself.
  Hawk: Why limit yourself to one chick? I'm planning on having a full rotation by the time we get to midterms.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: He leaves Eagle Fang for Miyagi-Do in Season 4's Good vs. Good conflict, deciding that his loyalty to Demetri is what's most important to him after the latter gives him a Dare to Be Badass speech. Plus, in terms of trying to win the tournament, Miyagi-Do needs him more than Eagle Fang does.
• The Heavy: While Kreese is the biggest antagonist in Season 2, Hawk is the most active threat and his initial prized student; he’s responsible for attacking and harassing Demetri, vandalizing the Miyagi-Do Karate Dojo and stealing Mr. Miyagi's Medal of Honor.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Averted, but still very much present when Miyago-Do and Eagle-Fang join forces - and Hawk is distrusted by both camps. Even Johnny makes him act as a practice dummy as penance for everything he did under Kreese while a frustrated Daniel observes Hawk has alienated practically everyone. Fortunately, this leads Eli to re-double his efforts and prove himself by redesigning the training area
• Heel–Face Turn: In the Season 3 finale, seeing that he’s now fighting with his former tormentors and against all of his friends makes him realize how far he’s fallen under Kreese and he decides to switch sides mid-brawl. At the end, he’s made amends with Demetri and is now part of Johnny and Daniel’s combined dojo.
• Hypocrite: He accuses Johnny of becoming "soft" in the time before Kreese fully took over Cobra Kai. As Johnny immediately reminds him, when Eli first joined Cobra Kai, he was "softer than a baby's ass".
  • A lesser example is that he hates being called degrading nicknames such as "Lip" and "Faux-Hawk", yet continues to call Mitch nicknames such as "Assface" and "Penis Breath" well after his Character Development where he becomes nicer. It might be an Insult of Endearment but this causes Mitch to later betray the Miyagi-Fang alliance at the end of Season 5.
• Iconic Sequel Character: He debuted in Cobra Kai, the Distant Sequel to The Karate Kid film series, as one of the next generation main characters, and easily becomes a fan-favorite.
• Important Haircut: His Mohawk, which is also part of his Significant Wardrobe Shift.
• It Was with You All Along: Hawk's Season 4 arc is basically this; he loses the mohawk halfway in the season, destroying his confidence and reverting him back to just Eli. However, his journey of self-(re)discovery with Miyagi-Do and reaffirmation from Moon helped him see that as badass as the hairdo was, Eli never needed it to truly be Hawk. With this realization, Eli went on to win the boy's division of the All-Valley tournament and become the valley's first Male All-Valley Champion.
• It's Personal:
  • He only has one goal come Season 2: to make Demetri suffer for turning against him.
  • When Brucks shows up in the Cobra Kai dojo at Kreese's invitation, Hawk elects to fight him as comeuppance for making fun of the cleft on his lip.
• Jack of All Stats: Becomes this in Season 4 when he becomes a member of Miyagi-Do and he takes well to their defensive skills and balance of the mind training. By combining it with his previous training at Cobra Kai and Eagle Fang, he wins the All Valley.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • When he and Miguel face off over the stolen Medal of Honor from Miyagi-Do, it's clear Hawk is right on the money when he calls bullshit on Miguel's disapproval having nothing to do with his lingering feelings for Sam, given that the next thing Miguel does is take the medal straight to the LaRussos' house with the intention of returning it directly to Sam (and only not getting to do so because Robby answers the door instead).
  • During an argument with Demetri in the school cafeteria, he rightly points out that Demetri's win in their fight during the school brawl was more because of luck than Demetri's skills. When they fight each other again in the warehouse with no glass trophy case for Hawk to crash through, Hawk wins.
  • When Mitch brings some warm beers for the Cobra Kais to drink while hanging out, Hawk points out that nobody likes warm beer and there was no reason he couldn't stash an ice pack in his backpack to keep them cold.
  • In Season 4, when he and Demetri are talking after Hawk falls into a Heroic BSoD following an attack by Cobra Kai that results in a Traumatic Haircut, Demetri admits that while Hawk was being a Jerkass about it, he was right that Demetri really needed to learn karate and that doing so was the best thing that ever happened to him.
• Kick the Dog: This becomes his modus operandi after he Took a Level in Jerkass.
  • Dismisses Demetri's injuries from Kreese after Demetri complains to him about it. To make matters worse, he even calls Demetri a pussy.
  • Calls Demetri, his best friend, a "fucking nerd" after Moon calls him out for beating him up at the mall.
  • Disrupts Mr. Miyagi's legacy by leading a trashing of the Miyagi-Do dojo, going as far as to steal his Medal of Honor. This nearly puts Daniel on the brink of tears, which leads to him successfully convincing a handful of Cobra Kai students (Chris, Nathaniel, Abe, Lil Red, Frank) into joining Miyagi-Do.
  • Dumps beer on Demetri's head and calls him a pussy after the latter tries to convince him to move on at Moon's party. This leads to Demetri making a rousing speech about Eli's past embarrassments to a vast majority of Moon's guests.
  • Attacks Nathaniel, alongside Mitch and Mikey, just so that he could steal the donations for Miguel's surgery and have Cobra Kai take credit for it.
  • Destroys Demetri's science project (after three weeks of Demetri building it) just For the Evulz. For added bonus, he also uses Sam's past relationship issues to push her buttons just so that she could continue to be on Counselor Blatt's bad side.
  • Leads a series of antics at Golf n' Stuff (alongside Mitch, Mikey, and Doug) prior to the arcade fight. This reaches its peak where he gives Chris a Gendered Insult and steals the prizes in front of his face.
  • Directs Mitch to the "rejects table" after Mitch is kicked out of Cobra Kai for losing to the very same person (Kyler) that made Eli join Cobra Kai. It is also implied that he did it to Bert as well, given that the latter was also kicked out by Kreese and is sitting at that table.
  • Calls out on Johnny for being soft, despite the fact that it WAS Johnny who made him who he is (encouraging Eli to "flip the script"), not Kreese. To rub it in his face, he outright states "Cobra Kai for life" after Kreese's Cobra Kai crashes Eagle Fang's first lesson.
  • Thankfully subverted in the Season 3 finale. While he had a chance to break Demetri's arm again (given that the latter was caught in a two-man deadlock), he instead saves him by taking out Doug Rickenberger, as well as another Cobra Kai student. This leads to the pair finally reconciling and Hawk firmly defecting from Cobra Kai as a result.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • In Season 4, Hawk aggressively confronted Kenny twice. The first time was slightly justified as he thought Kenny was bullying Bert and Nate, but the second time was unambiguously undeserved for Kenny at the drive-in movie theatre as Hawk spills his food while bullying him unprovoked along with Bert and Nate. This is what inspired Robby to lead Cobra Kai to ambush Hawk alone at the tattoo shop and shave his mohawk off.
  • A twisted example in Season 5. At the water park after losing the water slide race since Kenny punctured his tube, Hawk confronts Kenny but needlessly pushes tensions further as opposed to their initial confrontation where he reasonably told Cobra Kai to stay on their side of the park and the Miyagi-Fangs will stay on theirs. This culminates in Hawk provoking a fight which he could have avoided and injuring Kenny's leg. That incident combined with the two confrontations in Season 4 leads up to Kenny himself getting back at Hawk by making him victim to his newly learned Silver Bullet technique.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Truly becomes this by Season 2. Every time Hawk lets his (volatile) emotions take over and tries to pick a fight, it ends with him and others suffering hard consequences. Three particular instances stand out:
  • Attacking his former friend Demetri at the mall leads to him and his gang getting beaten up by Sam and Robby, and then Moon dumps him.
  • His trashing of the Miyagi-Do dojo causes a mass defection of Cobra Kai students, and constitutes a particularly egregious escalation in the Dueling Dojos conflict.
  • Escalating what had intended to be a one-on-one Designated Girl Fight into an all-out mob brawl which ends with his friend Miguel getting hospitalized and suffering life-threatening injuries.
• Lightning Bruiser: He's immensely fast and has the power to hit like a truck.
• Magic Feather: Season 4 reveals that his mohawk is this as when the Cobra Kais shave it off, he loses most of the confidence he's gained. His Character Development over the rest of the season sees him realizing his confidence comes from within himself and he ultimately wins the tournament with a regular crew cut.
• Manipulative Bastard: In Season 3, after Kreese advises him to fight more smartly, he's able to play Counselor Blatt like a fiddle by parroting all of her preachings about safe spaces and microaggressions whenever she has to deal with him and his disputes with Miyagi-Do, ensuring Hawk and his fellow Cobra Kais get off scot-free.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Hawks are natural predators to snakes, foreshadowing Hawk's eventual Heel–Face Turn at the end of Season 3. This is reinforced in Season 4 where Demetri telling Hawk that he is Miyagi-Do's best chance at defeating Cobra Kai's ace Robby Keene comes true when Hawk defeats Robby in the All-Valley Tournament and becomes the champion for the boys division.
  • "Eli" combines Daniel's and Ali-with-an-I's original subversions of the Cobra Kai "-y" Letter Motif, so perhaps it's not surprising Eli became "Hawk" while thriving at Cobra Kai. Or that he only won the All-Valley for Miyagi-do under his true name, after being taught by Daniel.
• Miles Gloriosus: Subverted. The show seems to set this up to be the case as his physical transformation and new attitude is initially Played for Laughs and he is shown getting bit by one of the junkyard dogs during Cobra Kai's Training from Hell sequence. But once the tournament rolls around, it's clear the Cobra Kai training worked and he proves to be one of their top fighters outside of Miguel.
• Mirror Character:
  • He's very like Dutch from the original film, as The Berserker to Cobra Kai and a Toxic Friend Influence to Miguel, just as Dutch was to Johnny. He even unknowingly imitates his attempt to flirt with girls by throwing stuff at them in a movie theater.
  • To Sam, because of their closet geekiness. Both of them reject "geeky" things in order to attain higher popularity. However, Hawk goes out of his way to bully geeks (especially his friend/ex-friend Demetri) while Sam does not go out of her way to bully geeks but is passive with other people bullying them without necessarily approving of it (watch Yasmine bullying Aisha back when the former was a cyberbully Alpha Bitch). Hawk is also able to mend his friendship with geek Demetri much faster and more profoundly (a Cobra Kai vs. Miyagi-do/Eagle Fang fight that broke out at Sam's home where Hawk changes sides sealing the deal) than Sam with Aisha (who settle for being Friendly Enemies).
• Mr. Fanservice: He gets the most number of shirtless scenes along with Robby and he is in really good shape. In the season 4 finale, he and Robby fight shirtless in the sudden death round.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Part of what leads to his Heel–Face Turn. Throughout Season 3, Hawk clearly desired to be recognized as Cobra Kai's new top dog. However, no matter how loyal he stayed to the dojo or proved his fighting prowess, Kreese never seemed to think Hawk was "true" Cobra Kai material, instead passing him over for Tory and eventually for Robby.
• Motivational Kiss: After getting one of these from Moon, his confidence returns and he would go on on to defeat Kyler, and later Robby in the finals.
• My God, What Have I Done?: He has this moment when he realizes he broke his best friend Demetri’s arm.
• Named After the Injury: Subverted. When timid Eli joins the Cobra Kai dojo, Johnny nicknames him "Harelip" for his cleft palate scar. When Eli Takes a Level in Badass and shows up with his hair styled in a mohawk, Johnny starts calling him Hawk instead, which the other students take up.
• Never Be Hurt Again: The reason he wholeheartedly embraces the worst traits of Cobra Kai to an extreme degree - he believes that the power it gives him will never allow him to be weak and vulnerable just like in the past, where he was a meek bully victim.
• Never My Fault:
  • He lashes out at the referee when the latter disqualifies him from the tournament. This is despite the fact that Hawk knowingly pulled a cheap shot on Robby when his back was turned during a timeout.
  • Near the end of Season 2, Hawk passes off the blame for Miguel potentially becoming paralyzed onto Johnny, completely ignoring his own role in escalating the tensions between Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do, leading to the brawl.
  • Come the Season 3 finale, this is Subverted as he finally realizes that he was the one who was wrong for becoming Cobra Kai's top bully and he apologizes to Demetri for everything he did to him.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: His trashing the Miyagi-Do dojo and stealing Mr. Miyagi's Medal of Honor backfires when an enraged Daniel (assuming Johnny was in on it, which he wasn't) confronts Johnny at the Cobra-Kai dojo — in turn prompting a mass walk-out among many of the students when they hear what happened that ends with quite a few signing up with Miyagi-Do. Also, Hawk's actions reach a point where Miguel feels the need to draw the line, which served to influence him to further reject Kreese's "no mercy" thinking.
  • Season 3 has him become a result of this trope when being sent to attack the LaRussos' home ultimately causes him to finally realize what he's been doing, rejoin his friends and play a part in their victory.
• No Hero to His Valet: Eli's only friend Demetri is not impressed by his 'Hawk' transformation for the first three seasons of Cobra Kai, and he affirms this by still addressing Hawk by his real name.
• Noble Male, Roguish Male: The roguish male to Miguel's noble male as Hawk became more violent and aggressive while Miguel, even at his worst, does his best to maintain some form of honor and discipline.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: He beats the living shit out of Brucks during a fight between the two in the Cobra Kai dojo and bloodies him, finishing off with a spit to the face for good measure.

O-Z

• Only Known by Their Nickname: Enforced. After "flipping the script", Eli practically demands that he be referred to only as "Hawk" (even registering for his first All-Valley tournament under that name and insist that it was his real one), though by Season 5, having finally reconciled both his identities, both "Hawk" and "Eli" are alternately used to address him.
• Only Sane Man: Downplayed in Season 3. While he still acts like a thug most of the time, he's the only one of the Cobra Kai students who notices how illogical Kreese's decisions are based on everything he's preached to them and finally realizes the man doesn't care about them and is just using them as pawns.
• Out of Focus: While still a main character in Season 5, he doesn't play as large a role in the season's main plots and or go through as much Character Development as he did in the previous seasons.
• Pet the Dog: He is the only Cobra Kai to actually go to Miguel's side when injured in the school brawl, and from what the audience sees, is also the only member of Cobra Kai to actually visit Miguel in the hospital.
• The Quincy Punk: It began with the mohawk, but as Eli immersed himself more and more into Cobra Kai's degeneracy, Hawk fully emulates this both in appearance and in attitude.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Prior to his transformation as Hawk, the kid was especially skilled in (unconsciously) giving this to everyone he met. It helps that he was also the resident bully's favorite target, which—paired with his big blue eyes—just made you want to give him a hug every single time.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: He starts wearing hoodies in these colors and re-dyes his mohawk red in order to maintain his image. It also showcases how much more aggressive he's become, and how far he's fallen when he's reveling in his newfound power.
• Red Hot Masculinity: After reinventing himself as the more confident and thuggish Hawk, Eli Moskowitz gets a red-tipped mohawk and a tattoo of a hawk to reflect his new, more manly persona.
• Redemption Demotion: When he joins Miyagi-Do, Hawk has still lost his confidence which affects his performance in the All-Valley tournament. He fails to break one of the boards for his board breaking demonstration with a simple jump kick when he previously managed to achieve said trick after doing a flashy midair stunt in Season 2. In the qualifying rounds, he even struggles against unnamed fighters from Topanga Karate. After a kiss and pep talk from Moon, Hawk gets his confidence back and truly becomes his best self by having a clean victory against Kyler without taking a single hit, making it to the finals and even defeating Robby Keene and becoming the All-Valley champion!
• Redemption Promotion: While always one of the best fighters in Cobra Kai and Eagle Fang, Eli was never THE star student. Once he joins Miyagi-Do in season 4, he ended up becoming their star male student and won the male bracket of the 51st All-Valley tournament, even defeating Robby in a straight fight.
• Red Hot Masculinity: After reinventing himself as the more confident and thuggish Hawk, Eli gets a red-tipped mohawk and a tattoo of a hawk to reflect his new, more manly persona.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Subverted. When the characters are introduced, brash, abrasive and opinionated Demetri is the Red Oni, to quiet, timid Eli's Blue Oni. However, these roles are reversed after Eli joins Cobra Kai and takes on the "Hawk" persona, with Demetri as the rational and intellectual Blue to Hawk's reckless, passionate and brutish Red.
• Reformed, but Not Tamed: Deconstructed. Hawk's aggressive attitude in early Season 4 is mostly the same as the way he acted before his Heel–Face Turn, which convinces Kenny that Hawk is a bully and Cobra Kai are the good guys when Hawk tries to forcefully convince him to leave. This also gives Robby, who cares far more about Kenny than the dojo rivalry, reason to come after Hawk with the rest of Cobra Kai and shave his mohawk, shattering his confidence in the process.
• Reformed, but Rejected: After he makes his Heel–Face Turn at the end of Season 3, Season 4 shows that Demetri and Miguel are the only ones who have completely forgiven him while everyone else treats him with disdain. When he voices his concerns to Daniel, Daniel reminds him that he burned a lot of bridges when he was with Cobra Kai and he needs to earn everyone's trust back with actions in addition to apologies.
• Shadow Archetype:
  • To Johnny. Both took up studying under Cobra Kai to build up their self-confidence, only to become bullies thanks to Kreese's influence. While Johnny finally sees the true flaws of the Cobra Kai mentality in Season 2 and becomes an Internal Reformist, Hawk rejects his influence in favor of Kreese. Johnny overcomes his past abuse at Kreese's hands by symbolically confronting Hawk after the school brawl to warn him against going down the same path and telling him that Kreese doesn't care about him. It's clear that Johnny's words are as much directed at his own younger self as they are at Hawk.
    Johnny: [Kreese] doesn't give a shit about you! About any of you. So, if you wanna keep whining about the past like a bunch of pussies, fine. We could play that game. Wanna stick with Kreese? Go ahead. Don't say I didn't warn you when your life ends up in the shitter.
  • To Miguel. While Miguel struggles throughout seasons 2 and 3 with his loyalty to Johnny and Cobra Kai, Hawk represents who Miguel could become if he makes the wrong decision by completely going off the deep end and fully embracing Kreese's toxic teachings. Miguel reaffirms his sense of honor by defeating Hawk and Coyote Creek and returning the Medal of Honor he stole to Miyagi-Do, and later breaks off their friendship entirely after Hawk breaks Demetri's arm, symbolizing his rejection of this path.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: At the suggestion of Johnny, Eli goes from a meek victim of bullying with a scarred lip to a violent Cobra Kai student with a mohawk and hawk tattoo on his back.
• Sore Loser:
  • During the Season 1 finale, he angrily calls bullshit on his disqualification from the All Valley Tournament after making illegal contact by kicking Robby on the back and injuring him during a timeout.
  Referee: That's enough! Illegal contact. You're disqualified.
  Hawk: Bullshit!
  • In a clear case of Character Development, this becomes averted in the Season 5 finale. After his loss to Kenny during the Seikai Taikai tryouts, the Cobra Kais try to needle him for losing. Eli doesn't take the bait.
  Eli: You know what? That's life. You win some, you lose some, but you gotta move on.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside:
  • The fact that Hawk goes berserk when someone mocks his mohawk, something he specifically got to showcase his badass makeover, shows that he is still as insecure as he was at the beginning of the season. It's his response to the mockery that has changed. Robby later turns around Hawk trying to mock him for not drinking with the Cobras by telling Hawk that, unlike him, he doesn't need to drink beer just to convince others that he's not a loser.
  • He also doesn't take it well every time someone reminds him about the cleft on his lip, and when Brucks shows up to the Cobra Kai dojo, he and Hawk have a fight, which ends with the former's face beaten to a bloody pulp.
• Stupid Evil: His extreme devotion to Cobra Kai's mindset occasionally causes him to cross into this, where he'll behave like a complete Jerkass even when this is detrimental to his goals.
  • In the semi-finals of the All Valley Tournament in Season 1, he pointlessly gets himself disqualified to land a cheap shot on Robby as Disproportionate Retribution for Robby making fun of his hair, even though their fight was tied and he stood a good chance of winning legitimately.
  • He tries to beat up Demetri at the mall for writing a bad Yelp review of Cobra Kai and joining Miyagi-Do, which causes him to get his ass kicked by Sam and Robby, makes Moon break up with him out of disgust and convinces Demetri to commit to karate training when he was on the verge of quitting. Also, if news of the beating had gotten out, it would undoubtedly have been much worse PR for the dojo than a single sub-par review on Yelp.
  • Immediately after this, Hawk's decision to trash the Miyagi-Do dojo and steal Mr. Miyagi's Medal of Honor does nothing but piss off Daniel just after he had decided to stop actively recruiting students and cause several Cobra Kai recruits to defect to Miyagi-Do, turning them from a minor nuisance with only three students to a genuine threat to Cobra Kai, and also could've gotten even more bad PR for Cobra Kai had Daniel decided to get the police involved.
  • He finally grows out of this in Season 3 after Kreese teaches him to "fight smart". Especially when he switches back to the side his real friends are on.
• Techno Wizard: Though not quite on Demetri's level. Nonetheless, Hawk was the one to plan out the schematics of the Okinawan sparring deck for the Miyagi-Do dojo and during the Cobra Kai dojo infiltration in Season 5, he briefly takes over hacking the server while Demetri fights off Kyler and his goons.
• Tell Me How You Fight:
  • Hawk starts out as The Berserker, through and through. He has finally been given a chance to inflict the pain he has lived through at the hands of his bullies on the world, and he will take whatever hits, land whatever disqualifications, and cross whatever lines he must in order to get the last hit in.
  • Shortly before leaving Cobra Kai, Kreese spots Eli's weakness as a pure berserker and teaches him to fight smart, shoring up his weakness of mindless aggression. He remains an extremely aggressive fighter, just not completely mindless about it.
  • After his Heel–Face Turn and training at Miyagi-Do, he transitions toward Genius Bruiser, no longer ashamed of his nerd side, embracing Daniel's defensive techniques to shore up the weakness of his pure aggression, and overall becoming more balanced. To the point where fellow aces Robby and Miguel admit that he's the better choice to represent Miyagi-Do/Eagle Fang in the Taikai qualifier.
• Testosterone Poisoning: "Hawk" ultimately embraces just about every piece of Johnny's advice, almost becoming a parody of manliness that's both hilarious to see and disheartening to watch go astray. Unfortunately, he only gets worse come the second season, where he starts taking every piece of Kreese's advice.
• Third-Person Person: By the time the tournament rolls around, he is referring to himself in the third person.
• Threat Backfire: After Demetri is beaten up by Kreese, Hawk warns him to keep quiet about it. His threats have little impact on Demetri (primarily because he still can't believe that his friend would actually harm him).
  Hawk: You know what happens to snitches?
  Demetri: Yeah, they get immunity.
  Hawk: No, they get stitches!
  Demetri: I already have stitches!
• Threw My Bike on the Roof: Taking Kreese's words to heart after Hawk's break-up with Moon, he (and the rest of his gang) trespasses the Miyagi-Do dojo during the night and vandalizes it.
• Token Evil Teammate: When he joined Miyagi-Do/Eagle Fang, he still had hyper aggressive, bullying tendencies, especially when directed toward the smaller/younger Kenny. It wasn’t until Cobra Kai shaved his head that he fully turned over a new leaf.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Obviously learning karate and becoming Hawk, but this trope also applies in Season 3 where he learns to fight smarter and as a result fares much better in fights than he did in season 2.
  • In season 4, he faces an identity crisis as he has trouble finding a middle ground between the meek Eli and hyper-aggressive Hawk. Once he finds a good balance, he takes another level up and wins the All-Valley tournament against his longtime rival, Robby.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Exaggerated. While all the Cobra Kai members do in some ways, most of them still have some moral restraint. Hawk on the other hand becomes a bullying, violent thug with almost no redeeming qualities (and it only gets worse since Kreese's involvement in the new Cobra Kai). It gets so bad that Demetri ends their friendship and Moon breaks up with him. Thankfully, it leads to...
• Took a Level in Kindness: In the Season 3 finale, he finally realizes Kreese is full of shit and that he's now fighting alongside the teens who bullied him and against all of his friends. As a result, he defects mid-brawl and joins the combined dojo under both Johnny and Daniel.
  • Hawk becomes a lot better with his Bully Hunter attributes in Season 5. In Season 4, he physically threatened Kenny with Bert and Nathaniel twice (the first time was a genuine misunderstanding as he thought Kenny was going to attack the two but the second time was a lot more mean-spirited) on the grounds that all Cobra Kais were villains by default. In Season 5, Hawk acts a lot more reasonable when dealing with Kenny who just kicked Anthony into a pool and defuses the situation by agreeing for the Miyagi-Fangs and Cobra Kais to stay on opposite ends of the park to avoid any conflicts.
• Tragic Villain: Hawk becomes the biggest thug in Cobra Kai all because he was relentlessly bullied by his peers before joining the dojo and is convinced that following its dogma to its extreme will keep him from ever going back to that life.
• Traumatic Haircut: In Season 4, the Cobra Kai students gang up on Hawk while he's alone in a tattoo shop and shave off his trademark mohawk. Since his hairstyle was tied into his "Hawk" persona, Eli loses his confidence and suffers an identity crisis until his match with Kyler in the All-Valley Karate Tournament.
• Twofer Token Minority: Downplayed in that neither trait is given any plot importance. His surname of Moskowitz implies a Jewish background, and it's briefly mentioned that he might be on the autism spectrum. Neither of these aspects of Hawk's background have yet come up again. It should also be noted that he has had surgery to repair a cleft lip, which is visible and brought up often.
• Undying Loyalty:
  • Hawk is a very loyal person and believes his friends should extend the same treatment. Most of his conflict with Demetri in Season 2 stems from him feeling the guy is being disloyal by continuing to bad mouth Cobra Kai. In Season 3, he starts to lose respect for Kreese when the man starts expelling less-skilled students who have been nothing but devoted to the dojo and in the finale his Heel–Face Turn is primarily motivated by him realizing he was the one being disloyal to his friends by taking part in the assault alongside his former tormentors.
  • In particular, Hawk always displays great loyalty to Miguel. After their fight at Coyote Creek, Hawk reassures Miguel that there are no hard feelings between them, his abandoning Johnny for Kreese is mainly motivated by believing Johnny is at fault for Miguel's injuries, he is the only Cobra Kai member seen to visit Miguel in the hospital after the school brawl, and even after Kreese has declared Miguel and Eagle Fang enemies of Cobra Kai, he still objects to Robby being allowed to join the dojo on the basis that putting Miguel in the hospital makes him the enemy.
  • In Season 4, he develops this for Demetri, in appreciation of Demetri having forgiven him for tormenting him for the previous two seasons. After Johnny and Daniel split up their dojos, he decides to stick with Miyagi-Do at Demetri's urging despite not having much of a relationship with Daniel or anyone else at the dojo.
• Unknown Rival: To Robby Keene. Hawk seems to consider Robby his Arch-Enemy after his defeat to him at the All Valley Tournament and especially after Robby puts Miguel in the hospital during the school brawl. On the other hand, Robby, though he's well aware who Hawk is, doesn't take him that seriously and holds most of his animosity towards Johnny and Miguel. Though this changes in Season 4 after Robby mistakenly believes Hawk has been bullying Kenny, leads the Cobra Kais in shaving off Hawk's signature mohawk, and they wind up fighting in the All Valley final. By the end of the match, it's clear both very much see each other as a Worthy Opponent. Or at least that what it seemed, until Season 5 when the incident at the waterpark reopens their old wounds and they go back to disliking each other. After Robby joins Miyagi-Fang, Demetri does call out both of them for dredging up old crap and they stow it after teaming up during Chozen's exercise, soon being on friendlier terms for the rest of Season 5. Not only does Robby compliment Hawk for beating him fair and square in the All-Valley tournament, Hawk returns the favour by offering Robby to shut Kenny up when he calls him out. They are later seen chatting about Hawk's new blue mohawk in the party thrown near the end of the season.
• Unskilled, but Strong: He uses a lot of impressive-looking moves, but he's not a very skilled fighter. He relies too heavily on his Superman Punch, which winds up all of his momentum into a single blow. It's very powerful if it lands, but it's easy for an alert opponent to dodge and leaves him vulnerable to a simple counter.
• Unstoppable Rage: Whenever Hawk gets into a rage, it's a wise idea to steer clear of him.
• Unwitting Pawn: Upset after losing the fight at the mall and getting dumped by Moon, Hawk decides to follow Kreese's advice about not accepting defeat and vandalize the Miyagi dojo, completely unaware that Kreese is manipulating him into being a pawn in his personal vendetta against Daniel and Mr. Miyagi. He ultimately realizes this in Season 3 when it's caused him to fight alongside his old tormentors against the people who were his real friends, deciding halfway through the battle to save them instead.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Hawk's contributions to Miguel and Sam's relationship falling apart. First, it was his suggestion that Miguel go over to Sam's house because "it's an alpha move", so Miguel did this and saw Robby having dinner with the LaRussos. After finding out about Robby, Hawk suggested that Miguel should strike first and show Robby that Sam was his, which is what led to the altercation at the beach and later Miguel fighting dirty against Robby in the tournament.
• Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Averted. Throughout Season 2, Hawk would frequently lose in most of his major battles when fighting as The Berserker. Come Season 3, Hawk actually manages to learn from his mistake and internalized Kreese's lesson to "fight smart", resulting in him becoming a Genius Bruiser. Now using both brain and brawn, Hawk was able to win most of his fights in Season 3, including his rematch with Demetri.
• We Used to Be Friends:
  • He no longer considered Demetri a friend the moment the latter dared to criticize the dojo online, and in fact tried to beat him up for it, leaving Demetri incredulous. Despite having a Hope Spot chatting about Doctor Who at Moon's party, things almost immediately get still worse between the two of them. Eli forgets that one side effect of this trope is that not only will your former friends continue to call you by your former name, they also know all your secrets.
  • He also falls into this with Miguel in the second half of Season 3. After learning about everything Hawk and Cobra Kai have been doing to Miyagi-Do during his recovery, supposedly on Miguel's behalf, Miguel tells him he does not approve and can't believe he would betray Johnny after everything he did for them. When Hawk refuses to listen and makes it clear he won't ditch Kreese and Cobra Kai for Johnny's new dojo, Miguel cuts him loose.
• The Worf Effect: He is one of Cobra Kai's top three students, but loses three of his major bouts. Two of them were against Robby, who is just as well-trained (and certainly more competitively balanced), while in his first fight against Demetri, he seriously underestimated Demetri's developing martial prowess (and the weakness of The Berserker against Awesomeness by Analysis). Happens again in Season 5 where he loses to the much younger and smaller Kenny, mostly because otherwise there wouldn't be any conflict since all the top karate students are on the same side and also to show Hawk grew out of his Sore Loser attitude, accepting that you can learn from defeat. This loss is also given many justifications.
• Worf Had the Flu: Hawk's fight against Kenny in Season 5 for the Sekai Taikai qualifiers is littered with this trope. Even disregarding Hawk's own overconfidence and the fact that Robby asked him to go easy on Kenny, the referee bribed by Silver discounts a point from him and lets Kenny injure Hawk twice where both hits should be grounds for instant disqualification. Instead, the referee gave Kenny a warning for the first shot (which injured Hawk's leg and affected his performance) and for the second shot, forfeits Hawk for getting winded by an illegal attack without even giving him the standard 15-minute recovery time seen in previous tournaments while giving Kenny the victory.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Downplayed. Hawk expresses his aversion to hitting a girl when Sam and Robby arrive to defend Demetri from Hawk and his gang, but still goes for the hit anyway.
  Hawk: I don't want to have to hit a girl.
• Yes-Man: Hawk sucks up to Kreese ever since the latter's involvement with the new Cobra Kai and takes every single piece of his advice to heart. By the conclusion of the second season, Hawk becomes Kreese's right-hand man.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Kyler's approval during the Season 3 finale, while the two were beating on Hawk's former friends. Seeing his former tormentor acting chummy with him, as if he was a member of Kyler's bully clique, gave Hawk a Heel Realization. Not wanting to be like his former bullies, Hawk decided it was time to change sides.

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