Headscratchers / The Next Karate Kid

• So Ned had a Villainous Crush on Julie, and Eric is the hypotenuse there, but why was Colonel Dugan, who doesn't seem to care about his students, leading the charge against Eric? Seems highly unlikely Eric was the first student to ever decide to leave Alpha Elite, given how strict it is, but that seems the entirety of his motivation. Am I missing something? If not, how is Dugan not dead or in prison if he's petty enough to try to kill a teenager over some nasty parting words?
  • Doylist answer? The film seemed to lose what little plot it had during the second half and basically needed a villain for the big final fight. Since Ned isn't exactly the most intimidating bad guy to have given he's just a bad-tempered teenager with an Entitled to Have You attitude and is just The Dragon anyway, all that was left is Dugan.
  • Watsonian answer? This goes straight into a fan theory but it sorta makes sense. It's quite possible that Dugan make have been a stable if stern authority figure once upon a time, but by the time of the movie, he's undergone Sanity Slippage due to taking too many concussions during his career that have left him with brain damage or a form of early-onset dementia. (Something that can sadly happen among real-life boxers and football players.) He's able to hold it together most of the time but the occasional moments where he does things like order the murder of a student show he's clearly losing his mind. It's quite possible the school asked for a full mental evaluation afterwards given their school security head committed actual crimes in trying to punish Eric.
  • It could also be less "man sets out to kill teenager for a specific reason" and more "Jerkass drunk on power decides to indulge himself, gets more drunk on power in doing so, and impulsively decides to flex some more." After being in charge of Alpha Elite and seeing how brutal he could treat them and order them to be, Dugan decided to test his new power by ordering this campaign against Eric simply because Eric was an easy target who he could spin as some kind of traitor to the students. After seeing that he could indeed order Alpha Elite to blow up Eric's car and beat him to a pulp, Dugan felt invincible, and so ordered them to go one step further without thinking things through. So yes, the man is normally evil and a menace, but probably not an Ax-Crazy child murderer unless given too much power and indulged too long.
• How come Julie's grandmother agrees to leave her underage teenage granddaughter under the care of a old man she just recently met? We know that Mr. Miyagi is not a bad person but she didn't, things could go horribly wrong in a different scenario.
  • She must have heard about him from her husband.
  • Still, trusting a teen girl to a man your husband met 60 years before, no matter how good he spoke about him, is kind of a stretch.