Sandbox / The Karate Kid: Kyler Park

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

"I date a lot of sisters."

Played by: Joe Seo

Appearances: Cobra Kai

"I've got a lot on my mind right now! If I don't pass trig this semester, my dad's gonna shit in my mouth!"

The local bully at high school that Sam is attracted to early in the first season. At Kreese's invitation, he visits his dojo in Season 3 and demonstrates his worth as Cobra Kai material.

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• All Asians Know Martial Arts: Double Subverted. Initially, he's the only Asian in a show about karate and while he does practice a martial art, it's a western martial art (wrestling) and he's not very good at it. He gets much better after Kreese recruits him into Cobra Kai.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • In the first half of Season 1, he is this to Miguel, being his bully and the very reason why Miguel decides to take on karate. This eventually dies down when Kyler gets his beating by Miguel and Robby enters the latter's life, even when Kyler targets Miguel in the LaRusso house fight.
  • However, a more straight example would be the Binary Brothers. He's arguably their most frequent bully, dating perhaps even before Season 1 and goes all the way to torment them, even when Eli beats him in the tournament as part of the latter's character development. It's really telling when Demetri is at his most satisfied when he finally beats the heck out of the guy who's made his life in high school a living hell for so long.
• Arc Villain: He's the main antagonist of the first half of Season 1, as his bullying is what motivates Miguel to learn Cobra Kai from Johnny.
• Asian Airhead: A rare male example, the dude clearly doesn’t have much going on upstairs. Case in point: when Daniel asks where his parents are from, as in which country they originated, Kyler replies with "Irvine". On top of that, the third season shows him as struggling at school academically given that his dad has supposedly threatened punishment by way of excrement in the mouth if he doesn't pass an upcoming trigonometry test. Just look at the top quote in this character folder.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: While he’s a formidable enough fighter to gain Kreese’s respect and he is better than some of the lower tier students, even placing in a martial arts competition he’s still far outclassed by to Miguel, Sam, Robby, Tory, Eli, Demetri, Kenny and Devon. Nevertheless he still fancies himself the top dog and thinks he’s better than those he sees get beaten, even though he isn’t the one to deliver those defeats. Eli even calls him out on it.
• Asian Rudeness: And how. He's a Korean-American who takes sadistic pleasure in tormenting others just For the Evulz.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: After Eli scores a point on Kyler during their match at the All-Valley tournament, Kyler tries doing this during the rest of the match. Eli is able to anticipate this and kicks him down twice, each time in less than a second.
• Ax-Crazy: He's a psychotic, vicious and sadistic brute who takes sick pleasure in making others miserable and he even spends a lot of time beating up Miguel in the Season 3 finale after he spent most of the season being handicapped.
• Big Bad Wannabe: After Robby leaves Cobra Kai, he considers himself the new alpha of the group, even though Tory is still the champ and Kenny got further in the tournament. He doesn’t even realize what it takes to lead. Kenny goes along with it, largely because Kyler is older than him, until Silver encourages him to take charge. At that point, even Kenny becomes the bigger threat, especially once he learns Terry's deadly "Silver Bullet" technique (something Kyler doesn't possess).
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: In Season 1, he manages to charm the LaRussos into approving of Sam dating him, putting on a much friendlier, gentlemanly persona, even though he's only interested in getting into her pants. This is mostly gone afterward as his acts of jerkassery become more blatant.
• The Bully: His stock in trade and defining quality. Kyler and his gang savagely bully Miguel and his friends every chance they get. He is also no stranger to cyber-bullying.
• Bully Brutality: He and his gang beat Miguel unconscious at one point. During the home invasion, he deals a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Miguel's back, while Miguel is still recovering from a life-threatening spinal injury.
• Bullying a Dragon: During the second All-Valley tournament, Kyler feels confident enough to call Eli "lip" again, even though this is still the person who beat his buddy Brucks to a pulp and Kyler only got the jump on Eli with the help of several other Cobra Kais. He suffers from a particularly bad case of this, to the point that Eli finally calls him out on it in Season 5. Despite the fact guys like him, Miguel, and pretty much every other karateka Kyler's tried to bully have kicked his ass multiple times, he never stops trying to antagonize or pick a fight with them.
• Bullying the Disabled: In season 3, he steeps to new lows. While Demetri has his arm casted as a result of Hawk breaking it at the arcade fight, Kyler draws a large penis on it and parades it around in the cafeteria. Subverted with Miguel, who is finally back on his feet when they confront one another again during the LaRusso house fight, but is also still clearly recovering from back injuries, and Kyler deliberately targets Miguel's spine, possibly intending to re-aggravate them.
• The Bus Came Back: He returns in Season 3, and visits the Cobra Kai dojo at Kreese's invitation with his gang.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Anthony still remembers how Kyler was involved with Sam back in the first season when they encounter each other at the water park. Kyler's response?
  Anthony: Dude, you've been to my house. You dated my sister.
  Kyler: I date a lot of sisters.
• The Brute: Becomes this for Cobra Kai in Season 3. Kyler is physically strong but lacks the intelligence and skill of Hawk, Tory, and Robby, meaning he's little more than muscle in Kreese's hierarchy. In Season 4, his demonstration for the tournament has him breaking cinderblocks using his head.
• Can't Catch Up: Despite being trained in two forms of combat sports and having practice with it much longer, he just couldn't hang with the main characters once they all Took a Level in Badass. This is lampshaded by Hawk in the Season 5 finale, saying everyone gets a turn on beating Kyler.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: He's been on the receiving end of one from numerous characters, most notably Eli and later Demetri. Yet he still never learns from any of his humiliations.
• Demoted to Dragon: Zigzagged. He starts out as the leader of his own gang in Season 1, even after he is beaten by Miguel in the lunchroom. However when he joins Kreese's Cobra Kai, he is outclassed by stronger, more experienced fighters (Hawk, Tory, and Robby), and when he does see himself as the dojo's "Alpha Male" in Silver's Cobra Kai, even that doesn't last as Kenny outranks him in every way (see The Dragon).
• Dirty Coward: Kyler is a walking argument that all bullies are cowards.
  • After Miguel kicks the shit out of him and his friends single-handedly, he starts avoiding any confrontation with him. Even before that, he's too gutless to fight without his gang around to back him up. He doesn't try again to attack Miguel until the season 3 finale, both because 1) Kyler is acting as a member of Tory's gang and 2) Miguel is recovering from a near-fatal injury and isn't strong enough to give him a full effort in a fight.
  • He continues to make fun of Hawk's scar until he delivers a viscous beating to Brucks, after which Kyler can’t even look at him.
  • He refuses to make up for his mistake and take the cobra from the enclosure bare-handed, letting Robby do it and earn Kreese's respect.
  • A Deleted Scene from Season 3 confirms that he's still this at his core even after all of his Cobra Kai training. Once Miguel and the others turn the tide of the house brawl against Cobra Kai, Kyler leads the Cobra Kais in fleeing the household rather than trying to continue.
• Disc-One Final Boss: He is defeated partway through Season 1. At this point, Miguel's main problem goes from dealing with his bullying to defeating Robby in the All-Valley tournament.
• Domestic Abuser: Perhaps the only reason why he's going out with Sam is so that he could get inside her pants. (only for Daniel to come and stop him). As soon as Sam breaks up with him, he slut-shames her out of petty revenge (even using Daniel's defaced billboard as "evidence").
• The Dragon: Ultimately becomes this to Kenny. Even before Kenny "takes over leadership" word-by-word, Kyler was mainly around to assist Kenny's vendetta toward Anthony as the former's biggest muscle and Mouth of Sauron.
• Dumb Jock: He's very athletic, but not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.
  • He reveals late in the third season that he's apparently struggling in trigonometry, claiming that his dad will "shit in [his] mouth" if he fails an upcoming test, which implies that this is a recurring issue for him.
  • He also considers ASU (Arizona State University) as his top choice for college, going as far as to call it, the Harvard of the West Coast. Yes, a well-known party school with a high acceptance rate, when much more prestigious universities on the West Coast exist. Either he hasn't done his research, or he might have a slight chance of getting accepted.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Yes, even Kyler Fucking Park has some standards. After Terry Silver gets exposed for paying off the ref to make sure Tory won the All-Valley, no one, not even Kyler, stands by him anymore, with him angrily throwing his Cobra Kai shirt in Silver's face after Daniel beats him.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • Eviler Counterpart to Johnny in the first Karate Kid. As boorish as Johnny was in that film, he at least genuinely loved Ali and mainly bullied Daniel because Daniel kept provoking him (wittingly or not). Kyler, by contrast, never truly respected or loved Sam (only being interested in getting into her pants), and bullied Miguel and his friends just for the hell of it. Additionally, Johnny believes cyberbullies are Dirty Cowards and would never harass someone over the net, while Kyler has no such scruples. Later on, Johnny makes it clear to Miguel that if a girl doesn't want to do anything physical, then the guy should back off — and even as a teenager, Johnny is never seen laying a hand on Ali, not even after she punches him in retaliation for a Forceful Kiss. As shown when he is with Sam in episode 4, Kyler is not nearly as much of a gentleman. Finally, both are arrogant, entitled rich kids who lead a Gang of Bullies, but while Johnny had a troubled home life with an abusive stepfather and remained close to his fellow Cobra Kais, Kyler is just a Spoiled Brat who antagonizes his victims for his own sick enjoyment and has no problem ditching his gang for Cobra Kai.
  • He's also this to the Binary Brothers (both of them being his bully victims):
    • To Eli/Hawk. While both were The Bully, especially toward Demetri, Hawk is a bully trying to mask his insecurity as a former bullied victim, whereas Kyler is a bully just For the Evulz. Hawk eventually reforms and defects from Cobra Kai, whereas Kyler is still a bully and remains loyal to Kreese's sadistic teachings.
    • To Demetri. When it comes to embodying their dojos' philosophies, both might as well be the best as it. Kyler exemplifies an Attack! Attack! Attack! merciless personality even before joining Cobra Kai (without much Freudian Excuse whatsoever), making him easily the dojo's most ruthless student, whereas Demetri exemplifies an Awesome by Analysis personality of utilizing defensive techniques and only fighting when needed to, making him easily the dojo's most pragmatic student.
  • To Robby as well. Both are top Cobra Kai students recruited by Kreese with an animosity towards Miguel Diaz, both of whom become his biggest rivals and arch-enemies, and both of whom dated Miguel's current love interest, Sam. However, while Robby maintains a sense of honor and eventually sees Cobra Kai as a corrupting influence (leaving the dojo as a result), Kyler has almost none of those traits (with the exception of Silver cheating in the tournament), and goes along with the dojo when Terry Silver takes over as the sole head sensei. This also extends to two factors: their treatment of Sam (while dating her) and their influence on Kenny. Robby at least treat Sam with care and respect, and only hates her out of the fact that Sam screwed him over by going back to Miguel at the wrong timing; Kyler on the other hand goes as far as to get into Sam's pants and goes as far as to slut-shame her when she understandably rejects his advances. Robby's desire for Kenny is to maintain a sense of honor while finding karate to fend off his bullies and is heartbroken when Kenny completely succumbs to Kreese and Silver's influence; Kyler on the other hand is more than willing to go along with Kenny's antics as his dragon and muscle.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Gives Miguel the rather uninspired insult "Rhea" because he first confronted him while Miguel was out buying Pepto Bismol for his grandmother. Following Johnny's graffitiing a large dick on Daniel's billboard, Kyler develops a near-obsession with penis-related jokes.
• Expy:
  • An Eastern Asian brute who mistreats everyone around him including the woman he is interested in and antagonizes a kid much smaller than him. He's shaping up to be another Chozen (who at least demonstrated Character Development and a motive for his ruthlessness).
  • He’s also set to be one for Dutch, as both are arguably the most sadistic members of the dojo with little to no redeeming qualities.
• Fake Ultimate Hero: After the police arrive on the scene following Terry Silver's defeat, Kyler is quick to spin them a tale about how it was he who rescued everyone after he realized how cultish Cobra Kai had become.
• False Friend: He and the others convinced Mitch to betray the Miyagi-Fangs and rejoin Cobra Kai as The Mole, seemingly out of respect and comradeship. However, right after Mitch reveals this and joins Cobra Kai's side openly, Kyler immediately starts calling him "Penis Breath" just like the Miyagi-Fangs, showing that he was just using him and doesn't actually respect or care about him.
• Fatal Flaw: Kyler is too much of a sadistic bully to fight properly. When he gets Johnny in a hold, he doesn't secure it because he'd rather taunt and punch him, which gives Johnny an opportunity to escape. Even after being trained at Cobra Kai, he makes the same mistake in his rematch with Miguel as he'd rather brutalize and mock him than knock him out quickly, giving Miguel a chance to get a Heroic Second Wind. He does better in an actual spar with rules since he is forced to take things seriously. This is also emphasized during his match with Eli during the All-Valley; he still taunts Eli, calling him "Lip", and is overconfident that he will defeat him easily. Unfortunately for him, Eli dispatches Kyler in 20 seconds flat.
• Faux Affably Evil: Kyler seems to come across as chummy and playful while he smugly torments anyone just for the fun of it, all with a smile on his face.
• Flunky Boss: Kyler is too much of a coward to fight on his own, and only picks a fight when his gang is with him. The only time he was actually willing to fight on his own was during the Season 3 finale, when Miguel was still recovering from a near Game-Breaking Injury.
• Foil:
  • To Yasmine in Season 3. While Yasmine learned from her experiences in Season 1 and began to change her attitude, Kyler learned absolutely nothing and decides to join Cobra Kai to make himself a stronger bully. Yasmine's biggest Pet the Dog moment comes when she cheers Demetri up after seeing Kyler bully him.
  • To Eli/Hawk in Season 3. After Eli's transformation into Hawk, he starts to become more like Kyler, a vicious bully that lashes out at others for petty reasons. The obvious difference is that Hawk has a genuine Freudian Excuse for why he became an aggressive bully (most of which was actually caused by Kyler and his gang), while Kyler's motivation seems to be purely For the Evulz. Hawk joins Cobra Kai as a means to learn how to get others to stop bullying him, while Kyler joins Cobra Kai just so that he can get the training needed to get revenge on Miguel. Even at his worst, Hawk still manages to retain some redeeming qualities like his belief in loyalty and his Villainous Friendship with his Cobra Kai classmates as well as bravery and never backing down from a fight. Kyler, on the other hand, is willing to abandon his best friend Brucks to join Cobra Kai after Brucks was badly beaten by Hawk and is revealed to be just as much of a coward as he was before. Ironically, it's when Hawk realizes that he has become too much like Kyler for his liking, that he undergoes his Heel Realization.
  • To Robby during and after season 3. Kyler fashions himself as a tough and unrelenting badass, being a loudmouth and picking on others unprovoked, but quickly backing down if he encounters someone stronger than him. Robby, on the other hand, is much quieter and collected, without a strong tendency to go out of his way to bully people, preferring to let his actions speak for themselves and not backing away from a fight with a stronger opponent.
• For the Evulz: His motivation for being a sadist (also see that entry). * For the Evulz: His motivation for being a sadist (also see that entry). After Silver is exposed, Kyler says he saved his fellow students from Cobra Kai, calling it a cult. While he’s telling Blatant Lies, it’s possible he actually knew Cobra Kai was cult like and he stayed because of the opportunity it gave him to be a bully.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: To Cobra Kai in season 4. Kenny has a minor rivalry with him due to Kyler hazing him when he joins the dojo, and Robby and Tory will take any chance to avoid hanging out with him. Piper is also clearly unimpressed by him in their one brief interaction.
• Hate Sink: Compare to the Grey-and-Gray Morality setup that most of the other characters have, Kyler is clearly written to be as unlikable as possible and has little to no redeeming traits. Even when Cobra Kai's students start falling under He Who Fights Monsters, they are still not as awful as Kyler and many at least have understandable reasons for how they act. Season 3 reaffirms that the guy hasn't changed one bit, especially his love of penile drawings and willingness to attack Miguel as the guy is still recovering from his coma and paralysis. Even his one redeeming trait in Season 1, his Villainous Friendship with his gang, is ultimately lost when he abandons his best friend Brucks to join Cobra Kai.
• Humiliation Conga: It's quite satisfying to see Eli dispatch him 3-0 in less than 20 seconds, with the last two points being scored in less than a second each time. Season 5 takes that further, with Eli giving him a "Reason You Suck" Speech, followed by Demetri taking his turn in beating the crap out of his former bully.
• Hypocrite:
  • He has no qualms about calling Miguel "'Rhea" just because he was buying Pepto the first time they met. Gets offended when Mitch tries to call him "Chodenose", even though Kyler loves making dick jokes to antagonize and mock others and "chode" is a term to describe a penis that's wider than it is long.
  • Outright looks down upon Johnny during their first encounter for "looking like a bum." Yet he has no problem aligning himself with Kreese, who just so happens to be an even bigger bum than Johnny.
• Insufferable Imbecile: Hawk points out this is Kyler's Fatal Flaw. Every time he fails badly, his ego is too massive and he's too stupid to learn from his mistakes so he still feels he's a big shot despite having been reduced to taking orders from a kid who hasn't even entered high school yet and having accomplished nothing except maybe hooking up with girls, while his former victims have achieved a lot including a stable relationship. In fact, Hawk, Robby, and Tory have been shown to despise Kyler even when he was on their side because of his incompetence.
• It's All About Me: It's made repeatedly clear that Kyler doesn't really care about anyone but himself. By Season 5, he becomes this when Robby leaves Cobra Kai — seeing himself as the dojo's "Alpha Male," even though Kenny proves further and further that he's the better leader and fighter. This goes to extreme lengths in the finale when he tries to take credit for everything that has happened at the dojo, even though he was on Cobra Kai's side the whole time.
• It's Personal: He's eager to get back at Miguel during their second confrontation in the climax of Season 3 for humiliating him in the school cafeteria fight in Season 1.
  "It's payback time, 'Rhea."
• Jerkass Has a Point: Despite being such a dick to his fellow students, Kyler notices Miguel attending Aisha's canyon party. Remembering how his last fight against Miguel went, Kyler wisely suggests to his gang and Yasmine that they relocate their party somewhere else. His gang follows, except for Moon, who decides to join Aisha's party and ask for Aisha's forgiveness, while Yasmine gets a Melvin.
• Jerk Jock: Kyler is an athletic wrestler who's pretty much a relentless bully in high school and loves to terrorize people for fun.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: While he is The Bully to Miguel and his friends, Kyler does at least seem to be an alright boyfriend towards Sam, until it's revealed he never truly loved or respected her, and just wanted to get in her pants. He later spreads vicious rumors about Sam after she breaks things off with him. Season 3 proves he has not changed one bit even after Miguel kicked his ass as he continues to bully kids who are weaker than him or can't fight back (like Demetri with a broken arm). He then joins Cobra Kai so he can reassert himself over Miguel and his friends.
• Kick the Dog: He loves this trope to pieces.
  • Not only does he shamelessly tack on a patronizing and Embarrassing Nickname to Miguel, but he also empties the bottle of Pepto Miguel purchased for his grandmother all over his head.
  • When he bullies Eli in the school library, Kyler mocks his victim's appearance, claiming no girl would ever be attracted to him.
    "Oh, look at this freak. What kind of girl would ever kiss this shit?"
  • He openly humiliates Sam in the lunchroom, claiming that she follows her father in the fellatio department^note Johnny had earlier drawn graffiti of a penis on one of Daniel's billboards.
    "Hey, guys. You know that billboard with a big-ass dick on it? I guess Sam takes after her dad."
  • In Season 3, he also humiliates Demetri in the lunchroom by doodling a penis on the cast covering his right arm, all because Demetri bumped into him while trying to maneuver his lunch tray.
    "Hey, guys. Check this guy out, standing around with a dick in his hand."
  • In Season 4, he takes part in cutting of Eli's mohawk, and continues to taunt Eli before their match at the All-Valley. This backfires on him spectacularly as Eli administers him a very quick defeat.
    "Hey you're little friend's lucky he didn't have to face Cobra Kai. Can't say the same for you though. Lip. [Makes a gesture mocking Eli's scar] Gonna make you kiss that mat!"
  • He also throws out a snide remark when Anthony calls him out for dating (if you could call it that) his sister when Kyler and the Cobra Kais corner him in the waterpark.
    "I date a lot of sisters."
  • And finally, he tries to rub Kenny's beating of Eli in front of his face during the Final Battle at the flagship dojo when Kyler and his gang come across the Binary Brothers. Eli this time is not phased.
    "Hey you heard Kenny when he dropped your ass. Just a Faux-Hawk now, boy."
• Know When to Fold 'Em: After the cafeteria beating, Kyler does not seek revenge on Miguel, and in fact avoids him at all costs thereafter, even to the point of suggesting that Yasmine move her birthday party elsewhere after he spots Miguel at the beach that their clique was headed to. His gang follows, except for Moon, who decides to join Aisha's party while Yasmine ends up being humiliated by Aisha for her past behavior.
  • A deleted scene in season 3 after the brawl at the LaRusso home suggests that he did this with Tory at the end of the fight.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Beaten and humiliated by Miguel from the lunchroom fight.
  • Gets defeated pretty easily by Eli during the All Valley after taunting Eli about his lip again.
• Laughably Evil: While Kyler is a despicable bully, his stupidity and douchey attitude is pretty hilarious, especially in Season 3 when he whines that his father will crap in his mouth if he doesn't pass trigonometry.
• Malicious Misnaming: He tacks an Embarrassing Nickname, "'Rhea", onto Miguel because he had a bottle of Pepto on him. And he still uses it when he confronts Miguel again during Cobra Kai's assault on the Miyagi-Dos and Eagle Fangs.
• Menace Decay: He's the primary antagonist towards Miguel until Miguel beats him and his friends in the cafeteria fight. After that, he avoids Miguel like the plague. Averted in Season 3 when he joins Cobra Kai. While Miguel still defeats him in the finale, his learning karate makes him an active threat again. This gets played straight again during Season 4's All Valley Tournament, when he gets dispatched by Eli in less than 20 seconds during their match, losing 3-0.
• Miles Gloriosus: Downplayed. Generally, he is a genuine physical threat as a bully, particularly after he joins Cobra Kai. Season 4 proves that when he's up against someone who is also trained in karate, he's not as much of a threat as he thinks he is. Thus far, Miguel, Robby, and Eli have all bested him in rather humiliating fashion, with Kyler not even being able to land a hit on the latter two. Eli lampshades this in the Season 5 finale, pointing out to Kyler that every single one of the kids he's bullied has kicked his ass by this point, which comes true when Demetri defeats him soon after.
• Mirror Character: To Zack, Anthony's friend, in his Hate Sink qualities and mistreatment of friends (which is of a different nature: belittling and insulting Anthony in the case of Zack, ditching Brucks for Cobra Kai after getting defeated by Hawk in the case of Kyler). Interestingly (when The Bully roles are swapped from Anthony to Kenny), Season 5 portrays him as the less sympathetic sidekick to the main bully (Kenny himself), especially when one considers Kyler's desire to one-up Kenny and lack of backstory that leads to his bullying.
• Mook Lieutenant: Kyler starts out the series as the show's first true main antagonist, leading his own little gang of bullies, during the first half of Season 1, before ultimately losing to Miguel at the season's halfway point. He later returns as an antagonist in Season 3 as muscle for Kreese's Thug Dojo, but he's outranked by Tory and Robby. Even when Robby leaves Silver's Cobra Kai and Tory becomes disillusioned, him being the dojo's "Alpha Male" becomes all talk as Kenny outshines him.
• More Despicable Minion: He's nowhere near the level of Kreese, Robby, and Tory when it comes to the dojo's hierarchy, but his sadistic tendency to pick on weaker people just For the Evulz (combined with a lack of backstory) makes him far less sympathetic.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • Hawk had been showing signs of disillusionment with Kreese throughout Season 3, and was clearly becoming increasingly remorseful over all that he’d done to Demetri. It is Kyler acting friendly towards him in the final battle that sends Hawk over the line and causes him to perform a Heel–Face Turn. Also, Kyler indirectly helped Miguel to regain a majority of his strength instead of simply finishing him off.
  • At the tournament, Moon overheard him taunting Eli right before their match. She in turn gives Eli the confidence he needs to deliver a flawless victory over Kyler.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: He and the rest of his gang beat Miguel into unconsciousness during the Halloween party. Miguel returns the favor in the cafeteria (see Kick the Dog above for the catalyst).
• No Name Given: He was only referred to by his first name throughout the first three seasons. In season 4, his last name is revealed to be "Park".
• Pragmatic Villainy: Seeing Miguel among the partiers at the canyon, he's actually being sensible in recommending that Yasmine hold her birthday party elsewhere.
• Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Or Asian guy. A lot of Kyler's mannerisms are stereotypically "gangsta."
• Put on a Bus: Kyler is absent in Season 2. No explanation for it is given, but the season does take place over the summer. Ultimately, he returns in season 3 when Kreese recruits him for Cobra Kai.
• Racial Face Blindness: Daniel assumes he's Japanese, but his surname reveals that he's Korean (who ironically have a VERY bad history with Japan). Fittingly, Kreese's "karate" is actually based on Tang Soo Do, a Korean martial art.
• Sadist: Kyler enjoys hurting people for his own sake. Even at their worst moments, Miguel and the majority of Cobra Kai at least have understandable motives for their aggression and don't indiscriminately go after people who didn't provoke them first. And during the invasion of Sam’s house, his “payback time” on Miguel borders on torture. He absolutely revels in taking advantage of the guy still recovering from a near-fatal injury by choke-dragging him by the neck and repeatedly punching him in the area of said injury.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • When Miguel and Kyler make eye contact while the former is chatting with Demetri, Kyler turns around and casually walks off.
  • The moment he sees Miguel among the crowd in the canyon party, Kyler decides against starting any shit, proposing to Yasmine that they relocate (which everyone else but Moon does).
  • A deleted scene after the brawl at the LaRusso home suggests that he did this after the fight.
• Small Name, Big Ego: As fits his stupidity, Kyler thinks he's a lot more impressive than he actually is, believing himself to be Cobra Kai's star pupil and hotshot leader despite having his ass kicked by almost everyone he's tried to fight and Silver regarding him as an idiot that Kenny would be better off not looking up to.
• The Sociopath: Definitely shows a lot of low-functioning sociopathic tendencies such as manipulation, a lack of loyalty, sadism, complete self-absorption, no empathy, and a massively outsized ego and grandiose self-image. Unlike most of Cobra Kai's other students, who were mostly bullied and/or troubled outcasts corrupted into bullies themselves, Kyler was a ruthless thug from the get-go. He enjoys tearing others down and making their lives hell seemingly for no other reason than because he thinks it's funny. He fights Miguel during the house brawl, and despite (or more likely due to) knowing that Miguel was nearly paralyzed for life by a spinal injury, he deliberately targets Miguel's back. He also appears to have no genuine loyalty to anyone, as while he initially seems to have a genuine friendship with Brucks, he abandons Brucks without a second thought when the latter is beaten up and deemed not to be Cobra Kai material (in sharp contrast to Hawk and Mitch). He's shown to be capable of charming others when he wants to, as seen when he starts dating Sam in Season 1, but it's all an act and he's actually rotten to the core. The fact that he seems legitimately unable to learn from his numerous defeats is also a strong sign as sociopaths are notoriously unable to learn from their mistakes.
• Starter Villain: He serves as the main antagonist of the first half of Season 1 and is ultimately defeated by Miguel at the mid-point of the season. Afterward, he only makes a few small appearances (which consist entirely of seeing Miguel and promptly deciding to be somewhere else) during the second half of Season 1. He does eventually return in Season 3 as a Mini-Boss.
• Starter Villain Stays: Kyler's main purpose in the first season is to bully Miguel and inspire him to learn karate from Johnny to defend himself, leading to Johnny reopening the Cobra Kai dojo. After Miguel beats him and his gang in a fight at school halfway through the season, he more or less disappears from the narrative, save for a few cameos where he sees Miguel and decides to avoid him so he doesn't get his ass kicked again. Kyler returns in Season 3 as a Mook Lieutenant and Mini-Boss, joining Cobra Kai after Kreese steals the dojo from Johnny and using his new karate training to seek revenge on Miguel for his earlier beating.
• Stealing the Credit: The conclusion of Season 5 sees him fabricating a narrative to the police about how he saved everyone from Cobra Kai after realizing it was becoming cultish, following Silver's downfall and arrest.
• Teens Are Monsters: The way he and his gang bully Miguel and his friends is pretty extreme and violent, in addition to having no problem whatsoever sexually abusing and making up false stories about Sam being promiscuous when she won’t put out or trying to get revenge on Miguel when the guy is still recovering from an injury that left him paralyzed.
• Thin-Skinned Bully: He loves insulting people (particularly by making cracks based on big dicks) but anytime someone makes similar insults towards him, he lashes out at them.
• Those Two Guys: He's rarely seen without Kenny in Season 5, especially when they bully Anthony.
• Toilet Humor: Dick jokes seem to be his main type of humor.
• Token Minority: He's the only named present-day character to be clearly defined as Asian, prior to the second season. By the end of Season 3, he's the only major Cobra Kai fighter to be of Asian descent.
• Took a Level in Badass: In Season 3, Kreese recruits him into Cobra Kai and he becomes even more of a threat now that he has legitimate fighting skills along with his athleticism. Fortunately, Miguel is still the superior fighter.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: While he's always been a boorish jerk, for the first half of Season 1 he at least makes the effort to pretend to be a nice person, to the point of convincing Sam to go out with him and making a decent enough impression on Daniel and Amanda the first time he meets them so they don't realize he's only interested in getting into Sam's pants. After his breakup with Sam and especially when he returns in Season 3, he seems to go out of his way to Kick the Dog as often and publicly as possible.
• Toxic Friend Influence: This is what sets him apart from Robby when it comes to their influence on Kenny. Unlike Robby (who tries to reform Kenny from Kreese and Silver's toxic mindset), Kyler gleefully goes along with Kenny's hatred towards Anthony and accompanies him with their bullying.
• Unskilled, but Strong: While Kyler is a trained wrestler, he isn't particularly good at it. He doesn't actually go for takedowns or holds until he's been hit and lacks the discipline to keep any of the ones he gets once given resistance. When put against a martial artist who values his craft more than hooking up and partying, he becomes a punching bag. In the All-Valley, he took out the quite capable Chris, earning him a spot in the top 8. When he went against Eli, his defeat took under 20 seconds.
  • This is eventually subverted after it's implied that he took his wrestling training much more seriously by the time he was reintroduced in Season 3, as he was able to defeat Mitch during an initiation match to get into Cobra Kai. After getting karate training from Kreese, he Took a Level in Badass and became a Strong and Skilled fighter. However, he does not have the same level of finesse as Hawk or Tory, plus he still can't hold a candle against Miguel.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Has sort of this dynamic with Kenny. Even after Kenny proves himself to be worthy of the dojo (and that was after Kyler mocked him for his cowardice), Kyler continues to haze him by using him as a busboy at the drive-in theater. However, they do act civil towards each other at the dojo, and upon Cobra Kai's victory, are seen celebrating together when Terry Silver makes his speech. Their scenes together are among the few times Kyler expresses any kind of sincere kindness to another person.
• Villain Cred: Kyler has nothing but respect for Terry Silver's teaching methods and style.
  "Second-sensei's working us hard today. Guy's going BEAST MODE."
• Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Played straight in Season 1 where Kyler didn't seem to take his wrestling training all that seriously and remained at the same level of skill throughout the first season. This allowed Miguel to eventually surpass Kyler in terms of fighting prowess, resulting in his defeat at Season 1's halfway point. Averted in Season 3, where Kyler took both his wrestling and karate training much more seriously and was able to become a genuine threat again, only to be played straight again during Season 4's Tournament in which Eli hands him his ass in less than 20 seconds. By the end of Season 5, even Demetri can kick his ass.
• Villainous Friendship: With Cobra Kai in Seasons 3 and 4. In fact, in Season 4 we see that as long as you're on his good side, he's surprisingly pretty easy to get along with. He invites his fellow students to do things like watch movies or buy shoes, even inviting Tory with the implication of buying her some (he notes Tory would look nice in some Dunks and the viewer would know that she doesn't have the excess cash to spare on a luxury like new shoes often), and you can tell he enjoys their company. He also seems genuinely fond of Kenny and believes he's doing him a favor by bolstering his cred through his own popularity as Cobra Kai's leader (said status exists only in his head but it's the thought that counts).
• Villains Out Shopping: When he's not being a sadistic douche, Kyler leisures himself with movie-going and shopping for sneakers, and happily invites his Cobra Kai cohorts to join him.
• Vocal Evolution: Kyler had a bit of a dudebro inflection in the first season, but it was much subtler. When he returned in Season 3, it was emphasized more, making him sound more oafish.
• Wrestler in All of Us: He is on the wrestling team and defeats Mitch with a submission hold during the Cobra Kai initiation sparring.
• Wrong Guy First: He is Sam's first Love Interest. The show quickly (and consistently) establishes why he's not right for her. When Sam sees Kyler's true colors, the dude gets dumped immediately.