History YMMV / TheKarateKid

* VindicatedByHistory: While the third movie was criticized by many as a rehash of the first movie, ''Series/CobraKai'' has led people to look back on it in a different light given season 3 explored Kreese's friendship with Terry Silver in flashbacks, and [[spoiler:season 4 brought back Terry Silver in person]].

* FanonDiscontinuity: Fans of the second film could just view it as the GrandFinale of the Karate Kid franchise while ignoring the rest that follows completely... until ''Series/CobraKai.'' Amusingly, ''Cobra Kai'' treats the third film as canon, since Daniel's second tournament win is acknowledged, a big point is made of how Johnny doesn't know Terry Silver or Mike Barnes when he's getting the ban on Cobra Kai lifted to participate in the All-Valley, Kreese's backstory with Terry Silver gets explored in season 3, [[spoiler:and Silver appears in season 4]].

*** Some deleted scenes actually show Johnny intentionally harassing Daniel and humiliating him in front of everyone and clearly daring him to retaliate. Since those scenes were deleted, Johnny’s bad behavior is a little downplayed in the movie proper. ''Series/CobraKai'' decides to highlight some of his negative traits, so that Daniel doesn’t come across as too petty in his grudge, like having Johnny openly admit that he believes Swirlies are hilarious and openly admitting that picking up on nerds is an old habit. The penultimate Season 2 has Daniel mention the deleted scene moment of Johnny having putting a blueberry pie on his chair that he ended up sitting on and Season 4 has a few of those deleted scenes also included via flashbacks.

*** Some deleted scenes actually show Johnny intentionally harassing Daniel and humiliating him in front of everyone and clearly daring him to retaliate. Since those scenes were deleted, Johnny’s bad behavior is a little downplayed in the movie proper. ''Series/CobraKai'' decides to highlight some of his negative traits, so that Daniel doesn’t come across as too petty in his grudge, like having Johnny openly admit that he believes Swirlies are hilarious and openly admitting that picking up on nerds is an old habit. Season 4 has a few of those deleted scenes also included via flashbacks.

* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Mr. Miyagi. Sure, like all humans he has his flaws, but he's willing to admit them and goes as far as to atone for his actions throughout ''Film/TheKarateKidPartII.'' But overall, he's a wise mentor and the perfect father figure to Daniel [=LaRusso=] and Julie Pierce. It really shows when he doesn't take too much pride over his craft, unlike his eventual successor Daniel.

*** Some deleted scenes actually show Johnny intentionally harassing Daniel and humiliating him in front of everyone and clearly daring him to retaliate. Since those scenes were deleted, Johnny’s bad behavior is a little downplayed in the movie proper. ''Series/CobraKai'' decides to highlight some of his negative traits, so that Daniel doesn’t come across as too petty in his gudge, like having Johnny openly admit that he believes Swirlies are hilarious and openly admitting that picking up on nerds is an old habit. Season 4 has a few of those deleted scenes also included via flashbacks.

** ''Glory of Love'' would've been a super ultra narmy and cheesy love song that TastesLikeDiabetes... if it wasn't performed by a pro like Peter Cetera, who makes it really charming.

* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: Pat Morita was known mainly as a comedian and comic actor prior to being cast as Mr. Miyagi, and the now-iconic role gave him several chances to demonstrate a fantastic emotional range, like his tragic DrowningMySorrows scene in part I and the reunion with Yukie and mourning for his father in part II..

* HeReallyCanAct: Pat Morita was known mainly as a comedian and comic actor prior to being cast as Mr. Miyagi, and the now-iconic role gave him several chances to demonstrate a fantastic emotional range, like his tragic DrowningMySorrows scene in part I and the reunion with Yukie and mourning for his father in part II..

*** Some deleted scenes actually show Johnny intentionally harassing Daniel and humiliating him in front of everyone and clearly daring him to retaliate. Since those scenes were deleted, Johnny’s bad behavior is a little downplayed in the movie proper. ''Series/CobraKai'' decides to highlight some of his negative traits, so that Daniel doesn’t come across as too petty in his gudge, like having Johnny openly admit that he believes Swirlies are hilarious and openly admitting that picking up on nerds is an old habit.

*** Some deleted scenes actually show Johnny intentionally harassing Daniel and humiliating him in front of everyone and clearly daring him to retaliate. Since those scenes were deleted, Johnny’s bad behaviour is a little downplayed in the movie proper. ''Series/CobraKai'' decides to highlight some of his negative traits, so that Daniel doesn’t come across as a complete villain, like having Johnny openly admit that he believes Swirlies are hilarious and openly admitting that picking up on nerds is an old habit.

* FanonDiscontinuity: Fans of the second film could just view it as the GrandFinale of the Karate Kid franchise while ignoring the rest that follows completely... until ''Series/CobraKai.'' Amusingly, ''Cobra Kai'' treats the third film as canon, since Daniel's second tournament win is acknowledged and Johnny is asked about Terry Silver and Mike Barnes, though it seems he doesn't know them.

-->"Get him a body-bag! Ye-heah!"\\
"Sweep the leg."\\
"Johnny, you're a cream puff!"\\
"Banzai!"\\
"Daniel-san."\\
"Strike first. Strike hard. No Mercy!"\\
"Mercy is for the weak!"\\
And of course, "WaxOnWaxOff."

** John Kreese came off pretty unsympathetic when he nearly choked his own student to death over [[SoreLoser losing a]] [[DisproportionateRetribution karate tournament]].
** Barnes was when he left Daniel and Jessica trapped at the bottom of a gorge with high tide coming in unless he signed up for the tournament, then broke the priceless bonsai tree even when Daniel did.

** And of course, many were saddened that Ali and Daniel broke up between the first and second film and then disappeared from the rest of the series. [[TheBusCameBack Thankfully mitigated by]] ''Cobra Kai''.

** When you pay attention to the fine details of the story, Daniel instigates some of the conflicts such as the Halloween party incident (even if Johnny and his group went farther than necessary). This became famous after being discussed in a [=YouTube=] video essay. That said, Johnny was harassing Ali at multiple points and at several points even his own goons felt he would take things too far in his retributions of Daniel's own and admittedly less extreme aggravations. This fan theory seems to be the starting point around which ''Series/CobraKai'' was built. While Johnny has to admit that he acted poorly, the humiliation Daniel put him through had an impact on the rest of his life. Daniel himself had to admit some fault in the matter but the end message of the series is like Miyagi said, there are no bad students, only bad teachers.

** "You're the best, around, nothing's ever gonna keep you down!"

** Not to mention "Glory of Love" by [[Music/{{Chicago}} Peter Cetera]].

* FanPreferredCouple: Ask any ''Karate Kid'' fan and they’ll tell you that Daniel and Kumiko should’ve stayed together. Many were seriously disappointed that they weren’t married in ''Series/CobraKai''.

** And of course, many were saddened that Ali and Daniel broke up between the first and second film and then disappeared from the rest of the series.

* RootingForTheEmpire: Searching on [=YouTube=] you'd be surprised to find fan edits that have Johnny Lawrence winning the Karate Tournament instead of Daniel.
* {{Sequelitis}}: The third movie, common complaints involving that Ralph started to show his age, and the fact that [[ItsTheSameNowItSucks it was a rehash of the first movie]].

*** Cobra Kai seems instead to be (mostly) based on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_Soo_Do Tang Soo Do]] (the style of the film's fight choreographer Pat. E. Johnson. Not strictly karate, but in the US in the eighties not many would know the difference) based on its heavy use of kicks, Terry Silver mentioning a Kim Sun-Yung (and stating he is Korean) as his and Kreese's teacher, and Johnny's use of commands in Korean when teaching in ''Series/CobraKai''.

* NeutralGood: Mr. Miyagi is the utterly perfect CoolOldGuy example. He is an incredibly skilled martial artist, and a kind teacher, but he wouldn't harm a fly (figuratively speaking) [[MartialPacifist other than in the sake of defense of himself or another.]]