Johnny Lawrence

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> Look... I wasn't taught the difference between mercy and honor and I paid the price for it. If I'm extra hard on you, it's only because you have the potential to be better than I ever was. You want that, don't you?
>
> Johnny Lawrence to Miguel Diaz, Mercy Part II

**John "Johnny" Lawrence** is one of the main protagonists of *The Karate Kid* trilogy and *Cobra Kai* television series. He was once the troubled rich kid of the Valley who started a feud with the new kid Daniel LaRusso that would last over thirty-years. His vicious training with martial arts made him a formidable opponent, as he was the top student at the Cobra Kai dojo.

After losing the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament, Johnny's life turned upside down and remained that way into his adulthood. He is divorced from Shannon Keene and the estranged father of Robby Keene. In an attempt to reclaim his life, Johnny reopens the Cobra Kai Dojo and becomes a sensei to an entirely new generation of students.

## Personality

> It's just that he thinks he can do whatever he wants to people.
>
> Ali Mills to Daniel LaRusso, The Karate Kid

Johnny was an arrogant bully who repeatedly bullied Daniel due to the latter becoming friendly with his ex-girlfriend Ali. During the finals of the All Valley tournament, however, he expresses shock when Kreese tells him to sweep Daniel's foot, which shows that Johnny does know when to draw the line. After losing to Daniel, Johnny lets go of his sadness at losing and anger at Daniel, and personally hands Daniel the trophy and congratulates him, showing he is a good sport. Johnny also defends himself against Kreese when the latter berates him for losing the tournament. He even calls Kreese a loser. By this point it is clear that Johnny sees Kreese's true colors.

In the following decades, Johnny was still greatly affected by his disillusionment with Kreese, losing Ali forever, and further verbal abuse from Sid. Stuck in the past, Johnny doesn't particularly understand the world or modern technology and doesn't attempt to further himself as far as social politics are concerned. He is often baffled by how times have changed; everything from music to modern slang confuses him.

> I may not always win, but I never back out of a fight.
>
> Johnny Lawrence, Mercy

34 years after his defeat in the All-Valley tournament, Johnny is a very bitter man. Divorced, working as a handyman, and stuck in the past, Johnny barely understands the world of the 21st century. Smartphones and the Internet baffle him, and modern music nauseates him. Most galling of all, however, is Daniel's success. Everywhere Johnny goes, he is bombarded by ads for the LaRusso auto dealerships, serving as a constant painful reminder that his old rival has succeeded where he failed.

Johnny's relationship with his son Robby is strained, due to Johnny neglecting him his whole life, which has made Robbie resentful towards his father and bent on doing everything he can to make Johnny suffer. While Johnny has expressed the desire to make amends with Robby and Robby himself did seem to want to work things out with Johnny after Shannon tells him Johnny wanted Robby to live with him, Robby goes back to disliking him after seeing Johnny hugging Miguel and Winston, though Johnny was unaware that Robby saw him. Despite their failed relationship, Johnny does care about Robby, and Robby in turn shows that he cares for Johnny by accepting his apology following his loss in the All Valley tournament.

After Johnny begins training his neighbors Miguel and Winston, he teaches him to be merciless. However, over the course of the first season of Cobra Kai, he begins to care for Miguel and Winston and realize that they are the only two people that has not given up on him. This way, Miguel becomes something of a surrogate son and Winston somewhat of a surrogate son for Johnny. Johnny tries greatly to redeem himself but is surrounded by people who don't believe he deserves it. Daniel, Shannon and Robbie being the top ones.

Although Johnny had congratulated Daniel after the 84 tournament, he still holds resentment towards him, as even though Daniel and Ali broke up, he was still the one who stole her away. He also views Daniel coming into his life the moment everything really went bad for him and never stopped.

When Johnny was a kid, he was nice and caring, but was often bullied and ridiculed by his stepfather Sid. In the ninth episode of the first season, Johnny tells Daniel about Sid's bullying. It is possible that Sid's nasty upbringing, combined with Kreese's aggressive teachings had a bad mentoring effect and taught him to be a bully towards others.

During the All-Valley tournament, when Robby is harmed by an illegal move from Eli, Johnny rushes on to the mat to see if Robby is somewhat badly hurt. While considered odd for a rival sensei to do this, it was likely chalked up to Johnny showing concern for all contestants and reprimanding his own for fighting dirty. During the conference finals, he witness Winston viciously injured Robby's shoulder a lot worse after he lost against him. During the finals, he demands Miguel fight clean, saying Miguel can win without focusing on Robby's tender shoulder. Miguel disobeys Johnny, vigorously grabbing Robby by the right arm when Robby asked to be propped up. This angers Daniel, who thinks Johnny ordered Miguel to do this, although Robby seems to believe that Johnny did not order it, accepting Johnny's apology. Following the Cobra Kai winning the All Valley tournament, Johnny begins to feel guilty that his karate lessons have turned Miguel into a vicious and dirty fighter.

> I'm gonna be the bigger man.
>
> Johnny Lawrence to Daniel LaRusso, All In

Johnny attempts to become a better and more honorable person. This includes Johnny scolding Miguel and Hawk for their cheap moves in the tournament, announcing to his students that cheating won't be tolerated, advising Miguel not to be merciless like him, and granting his former sensei Kreese a second chance (as he believes Kreese has changed). This is greatly due to Johnny, who unlike Daniel, wants to give others a second chance and because in the long run Kreese ultimately was the closest thing he ever had to a father and the only other person, besides his mother, who believed in him.

Johnny shows that he still cares about Miguel and Winston by advising the latter to me merciful and a better man than they (Johnny) and his friend (Tommy) ever was, and telling him that what he appreciates the most, is training him. He even develops a crush on Miguel's mom Carmen, but is sad to learn she already has a boyfriend. However, when Johnny learns the boyfriend only plans to use her for casual time, Johnny attacks the fornicator and warns him to stay away from Carmen. Johnny tries taking Carmen's advice in trying to end the rivalry with Daniel as no matter who is right, no good comes from a rivalry for either side.

Besides his temper and ignorance of the changing times, One critical weakness Johnny seems to have is his unspoken desire for love and companionship. In years since his mother's death, the rest of the world continued to view him as a degenerate, thug and lost cause. Hence his run in with Daniel and Robbie in the hardware store was what compelled him to give Kreese a second chance. Unfortunately, this has been used against him more than once. This also compels him to make unwise decisions, as when Robbie brought the hungover Samantha over. Robbie implored his father not to tell Daniel. Johnny is glad to have his son reach out to him and invites Samantha to spend the night to sleep off her drunkenness. However, he says both of them must do right by Samantha, which means Johnny will have to tell the LaRusso's their daughter is with him.

After Kreese returns, Johnny wants nothing to do with his former sensei, but after the latter fixes his second-place trophy and apologizes for the way he treated him, Johnny, believing Kreese has changed, allows him to co-teach with him at the dojo. However, under his nose, Kreese poisons several of Johnny's students' minds and renders them more ruthless. When Johnny finds out, he promptly kicks Kreese out.

Johnny still cares about Robby, even though the latter is still angry with him. He even tells Miguel how badly he screwed up with Robby. However, when Robby's girlfriend Sam gets drunk at a party, Robby takes him to Johnny house where they spend the night. The following morning Johnny takes him to school. They seem to be on good terms.

Unfortunately, everything ultimately comes crashing down for him during a school fight, when Miguel gets the better of Robby, but lets him go (as per Johnny's earlier advise) and even apologizes to him, only for Robby to kick him over the railing, severely injuring Miguel, which breaks Johnny's heart and causes Carmen to break up with him as a result. Moreover, Kreese takes over the dojo and kicks Johnny out, and several of Johnny's students have joined Kreese and accused Johnny of being responsible for Miguel's injury. Johnny now feels like a complete failure, and apparently disappears after abandoning his car and phone.

## Fighting Style

 File:JohnnyKick1984.gif

> The best student in the history of Cobra Kai.
>
> John Kreese, Back in Black

Johnny is an extremely skilled and aggressive fighter, with his mentor John Kreese even claiming that Johnny is the best student in the history of the original Cobra Kai Dojo. During his younger days, Johnny would often strike first, coming at his opponents with vicious combos. During his fight with Daniel in the All Valley tournament, the latter had the upper-hand until Johnny fought more aggressively and dirty, which allowed him to come back and almost win.

 File:JohnnyKick2.gif
By adulthood, Johnny's skills improved even further, to the point that he could take on multiple opponents with relative ease, and with Johnny even managing to overpower Kreese (albeit with difficulty) until he showed Kreese mercy, and was subsequently defeated by Kreese exploiting this opportunity. As an adult, Johnny remained an aggressive fighter, though more tactical. His main strength is offense (as Johnny tells his students that more offense is the optimal defense), but Johnny does show solid defense as well, evidenced by his fights with Daniel, Kyler and the latter's gang, as well as Kreese.

Johnny is incredibly strong. He can smash bricks, as seen during a presentation, and break a bonsai tree pot with a kick. Daniel and Graham have also noted Johnny for his strong grip. He also easily pulled out a man's earring during a bar fight.

## Trivia

* In the original *Karate Kid*, Johnny was seen as the main villain, until the end, where it was revealed he was a misguided teenager that was influenced to behave this way by the true main villain.
* He owned a Pontiac Firebird built in the 1990s.
* He is a fan of Poison and Guns N' Roses.
* He initially dismisses Miguel, and his generation in general, when they try to talk with Johnny about his sexist and harmful behavior. Though overtime, he begins to accept that the world around him as changed.
	+ He once demanded Miguel and the rest of his dojo "man up", accepting no excuses, as seen by his "curing" Miguel of his asthma by saying that will not be a handicap in his class and discarding his inhaler. He also is dismissive of Eli saying that he might be on the autism spectrum, saying that he doesn't know what that is but he should "get off it pronto".
* His favorite film is *Iron Eagle*.
* Johnny was unaware that he has to deal with more regulations in running the dojo than the Kreese-era Cobra Kai did, being held to the same government standards as a gymnasium or yoga studio.
* According to Johnny, Tommy beat Darryl Vidal in the quarterfinals of the 1983 All Valley Tournament, to which Johnny remarked he had to face Vidal in the semifinals of the 1984 tournament.
* Johnny won his championship in 1983 by defeating Tommy in the All-Valley Karate Tournament.
* He is one of the only characters who has been both an antagonist and a protagonist, the other being Daniel LaRusso.
* In 2020, Johnny was inducted into the Fictitious Athlete Hall of Fame, alongside Daniel LaRusso, who was inducted in 2018, and Mr Miyagi, who was inducted in 2015.