Characters / The Karate Kid: Miguel Diaz

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

Miguel Diaz

"I didn't get into karate to hurt people. I did it to be a badass and find balance."

Played By: Xolo Maridueña

Appearances: Cobra Kai

"Instead of burying your heads in the sand and pretending that bullying doesn’t exist, or that you could get rid of it, what you need to do is to teach kids how to defend themselves."

A young high schooler who lives with his mother and grandmother. Miguel meets his neighbor Johnny Lawrence and ends up becoming the first and star student at the newly reopened Cobra Kai. He later helps Johnny form Eagle Fang after Miguel defects from Cobra Kai upon suffering serious injuries from the school fight.

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• '90s Hair: Miguel's hair has grown curtains by the time of Season 4 (see page image).
• The Ace:
  • Thanks to being Johnny's only student for the first half of Season 1, Miguel becomes this due to having Johnny's undivided attention. Johnny himself tells Miguel he's his best student when he says Miguel is his best chance at winning the All-Valley tournament. In fact, Miguel never loses a fight when going all out, even if he has to resort to dirty tactics to win. Aisha and Tory got the better of him in their sparring sessions but only after Miguel relented his attacks, and Robby only got the final attack after Miguel showed him mercy instead of breaking his arm in the Season 2 finale school brawl. Even his fight with Kyler in the final episode of Season 3, which mostly consists of Miguel receiving a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, ends in Miguel winning with a single blow after his Heroic Resolve kicks in. In Season 4, Demetri mentions that Miguel has never lost a tournament match, and in fact, with the exception of his beatings at Kyler's hands before he started learning karate, and getting kicked over the railing by Robby in the school brawl, which only happened because a rageful Robby sucker-punched Miguel after Miguel showed his defeated opponent mercy, Miguel has never lost a fight of any kind.
  • Zigzagged through Seasons 3 and 4 as Miguel's injuries from the school fight that almost left him paralyzed haven't healed completely. This prevents him from completing his fight with Hawk at the All Valley and forces him to pull out of the tournament. It is also during this season that his relationship with Johnny starts wavering, causing him to start to losing focus and inner peace. However, Miguel regains this status during Season 5 when he finds closure about his biological father after meeting him, reconciles with Johnny and accepts him as his true father, mends his grudge towards Robby after defeating and sparing his rival in a blow-off fight, improves his relationship with Sam, kicks Kenny's ass in the flagship dojo fight, and heals himself emotionally and physically.
• Affectionate Nickname:
  • His mother, Carmen, addresses him as "Miggy".
  • Hawk frequently greets him as "Él Serpiente" (Spanish for "The Snake").
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: His most drastic moment of devolution from Nice Guy to the Broken Ace occurs after he gets drunk at the Cobra Kai beach party, gets belligerent towards Sam and Robby when the latter escorts the former there and takes a swing at Robby... that promptly misses and hits Sam.
• All for Nothing: Miguel spent the final episode of season 4 and the first two episodes of season 5 traveling all the way to Mexico to find his biological father. He realizes too late that Hector is Evil All Along and leaves Mexico in tears. And the real kicker, when Sam calls him out for leaving without telling her, they immediately break up, though they eventually make up and get back together.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • To Robby Keene. Robby initially resents Miguel for the time and tutelage Johnny gives him but eventually gets over it. Ironically, by this point Miguel has developed a hatred of Robby because he (incorrectly) believes Robby stole Sam from him and Robby is now his mentor's biggest rival's student. However, the rivalry shifts from a petty karate grudge to true enmity after Robby accidentally kicks Miguel off the second floor of the high school in the brawl in the Season 2 finale, as Miguel hates Robby for nearly killing him, while Robby resents Miguel for being seen as a hero despite having escalated a fight Robby was trying to stop, and getting everything Robby wanted: his dad, his championship, his freedom, his girl, his dojo, and the respect of the LaRussos. By this point, the two can barely be in the same room without coming to blows, and it takes a no-holds-barred blowoff fight and frank discussion of their issues in Season 5 for them to bury the hatchet.
  • However, an earlier example would be Kyler Park, who makes him his most frequent target simply because he accidentally exposed his age while he and his gang were buying beer at the bodega. As a matter of fact, Kyler's bullying is the very reason why Miguel seeks out Johnny to learn karate, which pays off when Miguel beats him and his gang to a pulp in the lunchroom. Even when their animosity dies down after Kyler keeps his distance from Miguel and Robby enters in the latter’s life, Kyler still makes it personal once he himself learns karate and targets Miguel in the LaRusso house fight out of payback for the lunchroom fight.
• Armor-Piercing Response: Johnny tries to talk Miguel out of exploiting Robby's shoulder injury... but Miguel retorts that winning is not a dirty business, according to Johnny himself. Speechless, Johnny offers no response.
  Johnny: Look, I know we want to win, but it's got to be the right way. We don't have to fight dirty.
  Miguel: Dirty? There's nothing dirty about winning, Sensei. You taught me that.
• At Least I Admit It: The moment Johnny questions Miguel as to whether or not he deliberately attacked his opponent while he was injured during the All-Valley Tournament finals, Miguel confesses with confidence; in contrast, Hawk is confused and unsure when he fesses up to similar crimes. Johnny, however, chides Miguel (and Hawk) for using underhanded tactics in a fight, and dissuades his dojo from using any more "pussy moves".
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Miguel's greatest strength lies in his ability to recognize patterns and learn on the fly, as he quickly masters the Drum Technique that took Robby and Sam a while to learn, and also quickly understands the principle of the koi catching challenge.
• Bash Brothers: With Robby after their bout in season 5 and are soon-to-be stepbrothers now that Carmen is having a child with Johnny.
• Being Evil Sucks: Season 2 sees him realize that applying Kreese's idea of "no mercy" to life isn't a great way to live and he decides to follow Johnny's Internal Reformist example.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Miguel is a very kind, meek boy that is caring towards his friends and family, but is also a vicious fighter who will become very vengeful if he feels you've wronged him.
• Birds of a Feather: With Sam. Both have kind and caring hearts, were raised by good families, and have a strong moral compass. Both were victims of school bullying at the hands of Kyler and struggled through physical or emotional trauma from the school fight. The only real difference between them is that Sam grew up with money, but Miguel didn't.
• Blood Knight: Originally hating violence and fighting whatsoever, Miguel becomes very aggressive and lives by the Cobra Kai code of attacking first to where he starts to enjoy violence and fighting a little more than his original view by the end of season 1. He backs away from this later in Season 2 after a few talks with Johnny though.
• Boring, but Practical: His fighting style mostly eschews flashy moves in favor of strong, well-timed standard kicks and punches. It serves him well during the tournament.
• Broken Ace:
  • Once he starts training with Johnny, Miguel discovers he has a genuine talent for karate. The very first time he throws a kick in a fight it sends Kyler flying, even if he gets beaten up by Kyler and his gang afterward. The second time they fight, he pummels them so badly that Kyler refuses to get within 10 feet of him for the rest of the first season. Notable in that the similarly talented Robby struggles against his two delinquent friends and has to scare them off by threatening to report them to the cops, while Miguel manhandles four people and has to be stopped by the school counselor. He's also able to pull off the Crane Kick after only hearing it described by Johnny, reach the finals of the All Valley Karate Tournament and defeat its defending champion Xander Stone in his first tournament run, and ultimately win the tourney for Cobra Kai. Which makes it all the more tragic when that talent is corrupted by the insecurity and bloodlust inherent to the philosophy of Cobra Kai. The trope becomes literal at the end of Season 2 when Miguel is knocked off a balcony by Robby (albeit unintentionally) and breaks his back, leaving him paralyzed for a few months. He manages to heal enough to practice again, though the injury does weaken his kicks and has Johnny refusing to let him enter the All Valley Tournament out of concern of straining himself.
  • After recovering from his injuries in Season 3, he's back in this territory in the emotional sense by the end of Season 4. The stress of dealing with preparation for the tournament, his two mentors' never-ending feud, his relationship with Sam coming under pressure from her failure to let go of her animosity with Tory, finding out that his sensei is dating his mother and Johnny's heartbreaking Wrong-Name Outburst where he mistakes Miguel for Robby after telling him he loves him all come to a head at the tournament, where Miguel re-aggravates his back injury and decides to pull out of his semi-final match after feeling like he was no longer fighting for the right reasons. He then runs away from home to find his father and discover who he really is.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl:
  • The insecure Brooding Boy to Sam's sweet Gentle Girl whenever they are a couple.
  • Inverted in Season 4, as Sam becomes more aggressive thanks to Johnny's influence and the stress of her various run ins with Tory, while Miguel becomes more melancholic and sensitive thanks to Daniel's pacifist Miyagi-Do teachings.
• Cain and Abel: Zigzagged with Robby Keene, even though this trope is very much fitting since Miguel is pretty much a son to Johnny at this point. By Season 1's conclusion, he definitely becomes the Cain to Robby's Abel given his vicious nature as Cobra Kai's top student at the All-Valley and his desire to brutally defeat Robby in the finals out of jealousy for Sam's affection to him (which very much defines the Trope Namer himself); Robby on the other hand (being trained in Miyagi-Do) goes as far as to try to be a good sport to Miguel only for the latter to viciously reject it (as shown when he pulls Robby's arm despite Robby trying to pick him back up). Season 2 puts Miguel and Robby at the same level as sympathetic characters, especially considering Miguel's eventual redemption arc. However, Season 3 & 4 has Robby become the Cain to Miguel's Abel after showing no remorse to nearly killing Miguel during the West Valley High School fight and joining Kreese's Cobra Kai as their #1 student; Miguel on the other hand completes his redemption arc by fully defecting from Cobra Kai and joining the Miyagi-Fangs in preparation for the All-Valley tournament. Season 5 has both of them reverting back to sympathetic characters on the same level (after Robby defects from Cobra Kai altogether), and eventually loses this trope when both boys make up after their fight in their Reseda apartment complex.
• Cassandra Truth: Miguel tries to voice his concerns about Kreese's supposed military exploits during the '80s and '90s to Johnny. He brushes Miguel off, however, and believes Kreese can get out of his old ways and change for the better whether or not his backstory holds any merit.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: Subverted, it's clear to almost everyone in and out of universe (one critical exception being the judges of the tournament) that he takes vicious advantage of Robby's shoulder injury during their tournament fight. He wins regardless.
• Chick Magnet: The entire school brawl of Season 2 happens because Sam and Tory were essentially fighting over him. Note that Sam was dating Robby at that point. In Season 5 when Sam decides to go on a break, Miguel barely needs to do anything (aside from a little help from Hawk) to attract a random girl's attention, who starts making out with him. Even in season 1, Sam seemed to be attracted to him and the only reason she decided to not date him initially was because of what Kyler had tried to do to her. Her Not a Date with him ends with her striking first and initiating a Big Damn Kiss. Even Tory actually started hitting on him first while he was still trying to win Sam back, not even noticing the other girl was practically throwing herself at him.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Miguel is often the one who has to rein in Johnny's more eccentric and socially unacceptable behavior by reminding Johnny that it's not The '80s anymore. He also assists him with modern technology and social media protocol and usage.
• Combat Pragmatist: Johnny trains him in karate to embrace this, on the fairly strong logic that neither life nor most street fights are fair. Miguel ends up getting good enough at this philosophy to defeat the entire bully gang at his school. The dark side of this later shows up, as Miguel is fully willing to use dirty tricks and unsportsmanlike ruthlessness to defeat Robby in the tournament, and in spite of Johnny's discouragement of such things, leading to him ironically being more personally ruthless than even Johnny was when he was young.
• Commonality Connection: Miguel shares many common traits to Daniel; Miguel is Daniel if he trained under Cobra Kai. They get along very well. In Season 4, Daniel gives Miguel the Karate Kid bandana while training.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: When Miguel sees Robby having dinner with the LaRussos (on Daniel's invitation) and witnesses Sam laugh with him over Daniel's training methods, he gets jealous. Then when Sam doesn't answer his texts the next day and sees Robby escorting Sam to the beach party (Sam's phone was confiscated and Robby brought her to the party so she could tell Miguel what happened), he goes into full Green-Eyed Monster mode and tries to fight him.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Johnny has Miguel pull off the Crane Kick that won Daniel the '84 tournament as his very first move in the modern-day one to send a message to Danny. It wins Miguel a point, but he proceeds to avoid any such flashy moves for the rest of the tournament, instead focusing on being relentless and ruthless with standard kicks and punches.
• Decoy Protagonist: Season 4 implied that Miguel would win the 51st annual karate tournament since he won the last tournament and has personal beef with Robby. Instead, he reaggravates his back injury and decides to drop out in the semi-finals before he could have a chance to fight Robby, while Eli ends up fighting Robby in the finals and winning the tournament making Eli the actual protagonist of that particular Story Arc.
• Defector from Decadence: As his loyalty has always been more with Johnny than Cobra Kai itself, he doesn't return to the dojo after he recovers from his injury now that Kreese is in charge. Instead, he helps Johnny start Eagle Fang.
• Determinator: The most consistent part of his personality is that he will not give up no matter what and will do whatever is necessary to reach his goals. Despite at first being out of shape, having both asthma and low confidence, despite the Training from Hell and Drill Sergeant Nasty from Johnny, he keeps with Cobra Kai. Even after getting beaten bloody and unconscious by Kyler, he is still determined to learn Karate. All of this pays off when he gets in shape and turns into a highly skilled practitioner of Cobra Kai Karate.
  This trait of his is how he recovers from his Game-Breaking Injury from the season 2 finale so quickly. While he does require more than one kick in the ass from Johnny, once properly motivated, he works like a hellion to recover. He goes from being in a coma with no guarantee of waking up, to being paralyzed from the waist down with no guarantee he could ever walk again, to walking with no difficulty to being at near 100% fighting ability within the span of four months.
• Deuteragonist: Outside of Johnny and Daniel, Miguel receives the most focus and development. He was also the only character besides the former two to appear in every episode so far, until the streak was broken when he was for the first absent in the episode “First Learn Stand”.
• Disappeared Dad: Much like with Johnny and Daniel, Miguel's father wasn't present in his life. In fact, the two have never met due to Carmen getting away from him before their son was born. At the end of season 4, inspired by Johnny's story of not having a father figure, he decides to look for his father in Mexico City, much to Carmen's horror. To his disappointment, the father he's been looking for turns out to be exactly the man Carmen was talking about, so he decides to return to her and Johnny.
• Disproportionate Retribution: His attempts to start a fight with Robby at the beach party and brutality during the final match against Robby show he's prone to lashing out.
• The Dog Bites Back:
  • Downplayed during the Halloween party. Miguel only gets a single hit on Kyler at most before he and his gang overwhelm Miguel and beat him into unconsciousness.
  • All the training Miguel went through with Johnny pays off, demonstrated when he beats the tar out of Kyler and his goons in the lunchroom after he openly humiliates Sam. Since then, Kyler and his goons actively keep their distance from Miguel and Kyler doesn't try to go after him again until the season 3 finale.
• The Dreaded: Downplayed but he is this to Kenny in Season 5. Every time a confrontation involving Kenny occurs and Miguel shows up, Kenny is always visibly scared at the prospect of fighting him. It is as though a warning among the Cobra Kais that Miguel should not be messed with if he is the only one who can definitively defeat their best student and leader Robby Keene AND be perhaps the only teenage character that KYLER PARK actively avoids like the plague.
• Drowning My Sorrows: What Miguel does at the beach party when he is unable to contact Sam, combined with other sources of emotional stress. This leads to arguably his worst decision in the season when he nearly starts a fight with Robby and in the attempt to swing at him, hits Sam instead.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Kyler and his goons nickname him "'Rhea" because he purchased a bottle of Pepto for his grandmother, which is used to treat diarrhea.
  Kyler: Oh, shit, someone has frickin' diarrhea. [laughs]
  Brucks: Hey, we should call him 'Rhea. [laughs]
• Encyclopaedic Knowledge: Miguel is very knowledgeable about a wide range of topics, demonstrated by him knowing off the top of his head that Mogadishu is in Somalia (to poke holes in Kreese's stories) and being able to point out all the logical issues with Johnny's made-up story about the origin of the phrase "to light a fire under someone."
• Everyone Has Standards: In Season 2, Miguel is righteously angry at Hawk's vandalism of Miyagi-Do and stealing of Mr. Miyagi's Medal of Honor, expressing disgust at Hawk for such a move, kicking his ass for it, and returning the medal, even making it clear to Robby he's not doing it to score points with Sam or come to pick a fight.
• Evil Virtues: Even after he begins his Start of Darkness, he still demonstrates many admirable qualities, such as loyalty towards his friends, fellow Cobra Kai and Sensei Johnny Lawrence, dedication to his craft, and for now anyway, that he still loves his mother and grandmother dearly.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Really subtle, but (especially compared to not really having a hairstyle at the beginning) Miguel has his hair in more of a fauxhawk by the time he's become more of a dick at the end of Season 1. Like the attitude, he lets it go later. By season 4, he's grown his hair out a bit similar to Xolo's natural hairstyle, which also gives him a bit more of a resemblance to Daniel.
• Fan of the Past: Spending so much time with Johnny causes him to develop an appreciation for 80s rock bands, especially Guns N' Roses.
• Fatal Flaw: In most situations, his concern for other's well-being would be a positive trait, but it's this trope for him. Every time he's lost a fight was out of fear of actually hurting someone. Aisha and Tory beat him in their training sessions after they he stops to make sure he didn't hurt them. In his fight with Robby, his concern for Robby's well-being ends up giving Robby the opening to kick him off the second floor.
  • While he learns his lesson from the above, to the point that he has no weaknesses in an actual fight beyond concern for his previous injuries, his flaw in his everyday life is that he doesn't talk much about his own personal issues. Whether it be from shyness or fear Miguel all too often avoids talking about his own issues. While this comes off as level-headed maturity in many cases to his peers, the reality is that he ends up bottling up his issues until they become real problems without anyone knowing. He has no problem calling out Johnny when he feels he's messing up, but notably stays mum on a lot of occasions when he's not in the best of emotional states. This comes to a head in Season 4 where he chooses to not confront Johnny over his Wrong-Name Outburst from his drunken state, nor does he state with any conviction that he really isn't feeling up to fighting anymore with the risks to his back and his passion removed entirely. This leads Johnny to completely misdiagnose why he's feeling off, only realizing the truth when it's way too late to do anything about it.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Goes from a bullied and sickly kid with asthma who has severe self-respect issues to a formidable practitioner of Cobra Kai Karate and eventually the All Valley Tournament Champion.
• Foil:
  • To Johnny. Johnny is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold Reformed Bully and former Big Man on Campus who is stuck in The '80s and completely out of touch with modern society, while Miguel starts out as a dorky and uncool Nice Guy who gets bullied and teaches Johnny about the modern social standards that he is unaware of. Johnny is Book Dumb and Hopeless with Tech, while Miguel is Book Smart and technologically savvy enough to create a website for Cobra Kai by himself.
  • To his arch-rival, Robby Keene. Both were raised by single mothers, but while Miguel's mother is affectionate and at times overprotective, Robby's is a Gold Digger who neglects him. Miguel is Johnny's surrogate son with whom he has a positive relationship, while Robby is Johnny's biological son who he has failed. Miguel starts out as a Nice Guy who learns karate to defend himself, but ends up going down a dark path thanks to the flaws in Cobra Kai's teachings, while Robby is a troubled delinquent who finds balance in his life thanks to Miyagi-Do. Both end up in terrible circumstances at the beginning of Season 3, but while Miguel forgives Johnny despite his advice to show mercy leading him to be hospitalized and overcomes his paralysis with his sensei's help, Robby blames Daniel for him going to juvie and makes a Face–Heel Turn by joining Cobra Kai under Kreese.
  • Season 2 sees him become this to Hawk. Unlike Hawk who is corrupted by Kreese's influence, Miguel takes Johnny's new lessons to the heart and begins to improve his attitude for the better. Thus, he scores an up-swing in his social life and fighting style, reigniting some of Sam's feelings for him as well as defeating Hawk handily in the Coyote Creek challenge. Unfortunately, Miguel's decision to offer mercy to Robby at the end of the school brawl directly leads to his landing in the hospital.

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• Game-Breaking Injury: Subverted with his spinal trauma. While he mostly manages to make a miraculous recovery from it, he still can feel some effects of it while performing some moves, which are hinted to be mostly psychosomatic.
• Game of Nerds: In addition to his Encyclopaedic Knowledge, computer skills, and love of superheroes, Miguel is a big Los Angeles Dodgers fan.
• Genius Bruiser: Miguel is actually quite intelligent.
  • In Season 1, he sets up the Cobra Kai website and helps to come up with the plan to get Cobra Kai back into the All Valley Tournament. He shows a lot of clever thinking when he fights as well, using his environment in creative ways during the lunchroom fight with Kyler and his gang, and he shows that he understands the All-Valley Karate tournament rules enough to skirt on the edge but not to get disqualified.
  • In Season 2, he is the only hardcore Cobra Kai student other than possibly Aisha to resist falling under Kreese's influence, instead seeing the value of Johnny's way of thinking.
• Good Colors, Evil Colors: Subverted. While one would expect Miguel to be the merciless one, given that he wore burnt orange and black to boot that day, Miguel decides to offer Robby mercy, out of respect for his sensei Johnny.
• Good Is Not Soft: As Johnny's protege and Eagle Fang's top student, he fully embodies this, best shown in Season 5. He knows that Kenny has been brainwashed by Cobra Kai and wouldn't be a thug if he just breaks out of it, so he tries to reason with him. But when Kenny won't listen to him and attacks him, Miguel does not hold back and gives the kid a Curb-Stomp Battle.
• Handicapped Badass: Miguel mostly recovers from his spinal injury halfway into Season 3 but he (presently) can't kick quite like he use to.
• The Hero: Miguel is the closest thing to a heroic character and moral center for the show. He goes through a classic hero's journey in Season 1. In Season 2, he stops his incoming Face–Heel Turn, and takes the time to integrate Johnny's new teachings on mercy. In Season 3, he goes through another hero's journey by overcoming his injuries, earns Daniels respect and understands his viewpoint of events, and in turn helps bring the two dojo's together. Miguel is a Mirror Character to Daniel's Karate Kid. Further reinforced in Season 4 when Daniel gives Miguel his iconic Karate Kid bandana to wear in training.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Miguel originally wants to be able to protect himself from Kyler. However, in the process, he almost becomes as much of a bully as Kyler was to him before Johnny reins him in.
• Heel Realization: Season 2 sees him realize that he and the other students are taking things too far and he begins to ease his aggression and try to make amends for their actions.
• Hidden Depths: Surprisingly, for an initially meek teenager who lives in a household with only a working mother and a grandmother who helps around the house, he is proficient at graphic illustration and animation, helping create Johnny's original Cobra Kai Facebook page, and also creating the logo for Eagle Fang.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Similar to Sam, Miguel has a bit of a blindspot for his friends and later his biological father. He stays friends with Hawk even after knowing Hawk led the group that trashed Miyagi-Do and stole Miyagi's Medal of Honor. Only after he sees how deep Kreese has corrupted them (from learning Hawk broke Demetri's arm and hanging out with Kyler of all people) does he decide to end the friendship with Hawk. This is incidentally what gets Sam to decide to give him a second chance at a relationship. During season 5, Miguel learns at least several episodes in that his father is legitimately a bad and selfish person.
• Hot-Blooded: Whenever Miguel gets angry he usually becomes very aggressive and impulsively acts out in irrational ways to cope with his anger. This is played straight in Season 2 where he allows his temper to guide him into solving his issues by being rash and violent, until Johnny manages to talk some sense into him.
• Iconic Sequel Character: He debuted in Cobra Kai, the Distant Sequel to The Karate Kid film series, as the premiere next generation main character. Suffice to say, Miguel becomes a hit with (both old and new) fans.
• I Want My Mommy!!: A dramatic, heartbreaking example regarding his father figure rather than his mother. In the Season 4 penultimate episode, when Miguel attempts to have a friendly match with Eli during the All-Valley Tournament, and his back injury flares up after an attempt to overexert himself all the poor boy can do is lie on the floor in pain, crying out for his sensei, Johnny.
• Jack of All Stats: Both physically and emotionally. He is The Kirk to Hawk's The McCoy and Demetri's The Spock. He is also portrayed as a hybrid fighter, incorporating both offense and defense. He is not particularly athletic, but his training pays off. In Season 4, he becomes even more well rounded with Daniel's teachings and does very well in the All Valley Tournament before aggravating his back injury and being forced to leave the competition.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: The semi-final match between him and Eli in the 2019 All-Valley Tournament is interrupted by Miguel spraining his back when about to land a flying tornado kick on his opponent. He is tended to by a medic in the dressing room and given 30 minutes to return to the mat, but ultimately opts out of the tournament since his heart wasn't really in it to win it.
• The Lancer: Miguel plays this role to Johnny in addition to their student-mentor relationship. When making important decisions about the future of Cobra Kai or Eagle Fang, Johnny trusts Miguel's advice more than anyone else's, and Miguel is able to reign in some of his more destructive tendencies and give him advice better suited to the modern day, such as helping teach him how to take a diplomatic approach to appealing Cobra Kai's ban from the All Valley when Johnny's instinct is to punch the committee members.
• The Leader: Miguel plays this role to the teen students. Miguel tends to start trends in the show, and his actions and merely presence helps drive the plot and actions of other characters. He is the first Cobra Kai to attain champion. When Kreese begins to influence the Cobra Kai dojo, Miguel is one of the first students to question Kreese's methods, and have the discernment to see through his manipulation. In Season 3, he spreads Johnny's new reformed philosophy on fighting, and is the driving force behind the merging of Johnny and Daniel's dojos, even going so far as to organize a meeting between the students.
• Like a Son to Me: To Johnny, who makes it all but explicit in Season 2 when explaining how he was a bad father to Robby and wants to be something better for Miguel. Miguel reciprocates and remains Johnny's most loyal and attentive student even when Kreese shows up.
• Lonely at the Top: Yes he won the tournament, but since Sam wants nothing to do with him he feels empty inside.
• Love at First Sight: He's smitten with Sam from the first time he sets eyes on her, but since she's still with Kyler, Miguel is unable to put the moves on her until she finds out Kyler's a jackass and breaks up with him.
• Made of Iron: Miguel can take quite a lot of punishment where even a beatdown from his longtime bully Kyler wasn't enough to take him down in the Season 3 house fight, despite just regaining the ability to walk.
• Made Out to Be a Jerkass: Miguel's attempts to reconcile with Sam during an '80s Night fails, with her assuming the worst about him for dating Tory.
  Miguel: Here you are, making me think I'm a paranoid asshole and yet you're on a date with Robby?
• Mirror Character: Miguel Diaz and Robby Keene are mirrors of each other's mentors, Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence. Like Daniel, Miguel is a poor fatherless kid living in Reseda who learns karate to defend himself from a Jerk Jock bully. Like his father, Johnny, Robby is a troubled delinquent with a poor relationship with his (in Johnny's case step) father who finds direction in life through karate and a new father figure in his sensei. Miguel is who Daniel might have been if he had joined Cobra Kai; Robby is who Johnny might have been if he had been trained by Mr. Miyagi.
• Mr. Fanservice: In season 4, Johnny oils up the now bulked up Miguel and makes him flex his muscles to attract female students for Eagle Fang dojo.
• Morality Pet:
  • To Hawk. Even after Hawk starts to succumb to He Who Fights Monsters, his genuine loyalty to Miguel is his most redeeming quality. Hawk tells Miguel there's no hard feelings after their fight at Coyote Creek, and Hawk is the only member of Cobra Kai seen visiting Miguel at the hospital after the school brawl. Miguel also causes Hawk to start questioning Kreese's methods which leads to his Heel–Face Turn.
  • And of course, Johnny is at his best when it comes to his relationship with Miguel. He tries to give him good advice, tries to keep him on the right path, and does what he can to raise the money for Miguel's family while he's in the hospital. Even if he is directly told to, Johnny never gives up on him.
• Must Make Amends: If Miguel screws up and does the wrong thing, he will always try to make up for it. He returns Mr. Miyagi's Medal of Honor after Hawk steals it while trashing Miyagi-Do, and goes out of his way to patch things up with every character he hurts during his more dickish moments in Season 1. Unfortunately for him, he tries to make amends with Robby a little too late in Season 2, and his attempt ends up coming across as mockery.
• Nerdy Inhaler: Miguel has (relatively mild) asthma, and starts the series with an inhaler.
• Nice Guy: At first, Miguel is one of the most polite and kindhearted characters in the show. This is one of the reasons why Samantha LaRusso ends up dating him. He does become more of a jerk from the end of the first season to the beginning of the second, but after a few heart-to-hearts with Johnny, he sees the error of his ways and strives to be better. In Season 3, he has managed to put his violent tendencies behind him and has firmly returned to Nice Guy territory.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: When Miguel decides to offer Robby mercy and not break his arm, Robby, in a fit of rage, kicks him over the railing, breaking his spine and sending him into a coma.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: To his opponents during the tournament; Miguel is 100% focused on winning the thing, and combines a frightening degree of ruthlessness (such as viciously tugging on Robby's injured arm when offered a hand up) with enough intelligence to stay ''just'' inside the rules and not get disqualified, and never once engages in any trash-talking, unlike Hawk and Robby. It pays off, and he wins.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Miguel and Daniel realize they're this when they finally have a formal conversation in Season 3. In Season 4, Daniel gives Miguel the iconic Karate Kid bandana while training.

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• Only Sane Man: In Season 2, Miguel's the only one of the Cobra Kai students to notice the inconsistencies in Kreese's combat stories and question the things he's teaching them. In Season 3, Miguel further displays an expanded awareness of the rivalry between Daniel and Johnny, and is one of the driving forces in helping to bring the two together.
• Pet the Dog:
  • After he Took a Level in Jerkass, he still has enough good sportsmanship inside of him to accept Xander Stone's congratulatory handshake and compliment him on a good match. Also, if you look closely after Johnny yells at Hawk for attacking Robby from behind, he is also seen in the background yelling at Hawk and angrily nudging him in disapproval. Despite Hawk's opponent being Robby.
  • He visits Daniel's house to return the Medal of Honor, the same one Hawk and his gang stole when they vandalized the Miyagi-Do dojo. And when it's Robby who answers the door, Miguel makes it crystal clear to his suspicious rival that he's not there to fight.
• Power Copying: More like move copying, but the same principle: he gets hit with it, he learns it, and he will use it. Most notably, he opens with Daniel's Crane Kick on orders from Johnny just to stick it to Daniel and later uses the Drum Technique that Sam demonstrated to take out Kyler during Season 3.
• Protagonist Journey to Villain: He's on a pretty standard heroic journey in the first half of the first season, one that resembles Daniel's, in fact. But once he successfully defeats his school bullies, he gradually begins to step into their vacated spot, and eventually, his changes in attitude and philosophies lead to him losing Sam as a girlfriend and violently beating Johnny's son Robby with dirty tactics during the tournament. Fortunately, he has yet to demonstrate the sadism that Kyler has or that Johnny had at his age. Eventually subverted as he is against Hawk stealing Mr. Miyagi's Medal of Honor and trashing the Miyagi-Do dojo, and he decides to offer mercy to Robby after remembering Johnny's lecture at the last second. He then embarks on a Redemption Quest in the latter half of Season 3.
• "Reason You Suck" Speech: He's more than willing to deliver a few of these in Season 3 to Johnny. The main one though is actually meant to motivate Johnny rather than tear him down, calling him out for running away from his students and allowing them to perceive him as weak (and leaving them susceptible to Kreese). This very act ends up being the catalyst that allows him to regain his ability to stand on his own two feet with no assistance.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Just like the rest of his Cobra Kai brethren, when the big school brawl breaks out, he is wearing a burnt orange shirt, black and orange-striped track pants, and orange sneakers. Subverted at the end because he decides to offer Robby mercy at the last second.
• Redemption Quest: His story arc in the second half of Season 3, where he makes peace with the Miyagi-do students and tries to stop the gang warfare that the Cobra Kai dojo kicked off when he was its lead student.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In Season 4 Miguel becomes incredibly jaded and by the finale, finally tires of everything and outright abandons his semi-final match against Eli and runs off to Mexico to find his father to figure out who he is.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: He tries to start a fight with Robby because he thinks Sam was cheating on him with her. When she dumps him for that, guess who she ends up going to.
• Sex Is Violence: He is easily turned on by sparring with Sam.
• Simple, yet Awesome: Miguel's fighting style in the tournament. His punches and kicks are, for the most part, very normal and are nothing you wouldn't expect to see in a standard martial arts tournament. He simply delivers them with overwhelming power and perfect timing, hopelessly outclassing every opponent he faces up to Xander Stone and, by the end of Season 2, Robby Keene.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: With Samantha LaRusso. The relationship is strained by the fact that she has to keep the relationship a secret due to her parents never approving of her going out with one of Johnny Lawrence's students. Sam does get her dad to warm up to Miguel after he's left Cobra Kai.
• Start of Darkness: Although Miguel's worst actions so far have only been when he has felt threatened, with a goal in mind or while drunk, his willingness to use brutal violence by the end of the first season as a first resort to conflicts with others show he is starting to go down a bad path. Johnny spends season 2 and season 3 reining Miguel back in.
• Strong and Skilled:
  • Miguel is the best student Cobra Kai has due to his quick mastery and incredible strength he wields causes him to outmatch his fellow students and can even beat a former Valley Champion despite having no experience in the tournament. The school brawl in Season 2 also proves he's the best fighter overall when he's able to pin Robby to the ground without using any dirty tactics and would've easily broken his arm if he didn't decide to show mercy. In Season 4, Demetri even mentions that Miguel has never lost a fair fight.
  • Reinforced in an epic manner when, in the Season 3 finale, Miguel manages to defeat Kyler again even after Kyler’s been recruited by Kreese and being a trained wrestler and karateka, and even after Miguel’s only learned to walk again a few weeks ago. He was barely able to kick at all the episode before, and had to soak up a beating before finally landing his hits, but still won.
• Talented, but Trained: Miguel quickly shows an aptitude for martial arts, but only by going through Johnny's unorthodox yet effective training he's able to reach incredible heights, becoming one of the most skilled teen fighters in the Valley.
• Tell Me How You Fight: Miguel's reliance on simple attacks and skirting the edges of the socially and legally acceptable show just how well he has internalized Cobra Kai's Combat Pragmatist values, and cement his status as Lawrence's star pupil.
• Throwing Off the Disability: First with his asthma — although it's brought up every now and then, it never really hinders him — and then more dramatically with his ultimately not Career-Ending Injury.
• Token Good Teammate: He's one of these in season 2, given that the rest of Cobra Kai are slowly becoming the kinds of bullies Miguel initially took up karate to defend himself from.
• Took a Level in Badass: Like the rest of the kids in Cobra Kai and other Karate Kid protagonists, Miguel goes from a helpless victim of bullying to a bona fide ass-kicker, wiping the floor with the entirety of Kyler's gang. Unfortunately, it is accompanied by...
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Miguel winds up succumbing to the same kind of insecurities and aggression that made Johnny become a bully when he was a kid, following in his footsteps. Thankfully, this in turn is followed by...
• Took a Level in Kindness: Over the course of Season 2, he is one of the only Cobra Kai students to take Johnny's new thinking to heart and resists Kreese's influence. In stark contrast to Hawk, Miguel becomes less bloodthirsty without becoming softer, going as far as to beat up Hawk to retrieve Mr. Miyagi's stolen Medal of Honor and even showing mercy to Robby after pinning him in the final brawl. Sadly, it is this latter act which lands Miguel in the hospital. But in Season 3, he completely distances himself from his friends in Cobra Kai upon finding out what they've been doing under Kreese's leadership. This earns him a second shot at a relationship with Sam, who is happy to see him back to his old self again.
• Training from Hell: The first student of Johnny, who taught him how to kick by nearly drowning him in the school's pool.
• Undying Loyalty: Season 3 proves that not even suffering a spinal injury that renders him unable to walk because of a conflict that was partly Johnny's fault will keep Miguel from continuing to be Johnny's most loyal and devoted student.
  "Look, I don't know where I would be today, or who I would be today, if it wasn't for my sensei."
• The Unfettered: He's unapologetic about exploiting Robby's shoulder injury to win (and by extension, Cobra Kai) the All Valley Tournament.
• Unknown Rival: He was this to Robby and at the same time, Robby was this to him, before becoming proper rivals. He saw Robby as a romantic rival, even though Sam didn't see him as anything more than a friend initially, while Robby saw him as a son-like figure to Johnny, his actual father, who was never there for him. Hilariously lampshaded by the actors (remaining in character) in an outtake.
  Miguel: (After catching her with Robby) What the f**k Sam! I thought we had something!
  Robby: Who're you? Are you the dude who was hugging my dad?
  Miguel: Are you kidding me right now?
  Robby: DON'T HUG MY DAD!
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Sam. In Season 2, they still have feelings for each other, despite him dating Tory and her dating Robby, and resolve it in Season 3.
• Unstoppable Rage: During the all-school brawl when pretty much everyone's emotions are high, but he and Robby are one of the most noticeable due to the animosity the two have grown to have as he starts to fight more wildly to the point where he's willing to beat Robby to a bloody pulp in a vicious rage.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In Season 5, he calls out Sam for being so hostile to Tory even after she revealed the truth about the All-Valley Tournament and gave them a means to take down Cobra Kai.
• Worf Had the Flu: In Season 3, Miguel would probably have beaten Kyler much faster were he not still recovering from his paralysis, which made his kicking skills much weaker.
• Working-Class Hero: Much like Daniel in the original film trilogy, Miguel comes from a working class family where his single mother is the breadwinner. As such, Miguel does chores around the dojo for Johnny en lieu of actual payment and when he needs surgery following the school brawl, several characters pitch in (Sam with a car wash fundraiser, Bobby with his church's charity funds, etc.) to raise money for it as his family can't afford it. Later on, Miguel and Daniel bond over their shared experiences.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Miguel is averse to attacking Aisha on the grounds that she's a girl, contradictory to his belief that both genders are equal, even though he didn't mean to say it in a way that makes it sound like members of both genders have equally as much right to hit each other. In Season 2, when Tory first appears, he also shows concern about hurting her — before she makes it clear to him that she's ready for a fight. Sam even teases him about it in season 3.
  Sam: [confidently] Try to hit me.
  Miguel: [shakes his head] I'm not gonna try to hit you...
  Sam: What? You scared you're gonna get beat by a girl?