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The history of Johnny Lawrence from The Karate Kid franchise and Cobra Kai series.
Early life[]
When Johnny was a little kid he was lonely and distant, and had no friends and was often bullied by his stepfather Sid. One day, he came across the Cobra Kai dojo. Immediately taking an interest, Johnny requested his mother and Sid to enroll him in the dojo. While Sid ridiculed him, Johnny's mother believing that Karate would allow him to make friends convinced Sid to let Johnny join. Johnny enrolled in the Cobra Kai dojo and became the top student. He won the All Valley tournament in 1982 and 1983.
At some point, he started a relationship with Ali Mills. The two dated for two years. However, the summer before the events of the original Karate Kid, the two broke up after having a huge argument. Despite their breakup, Johnny wanted to fix their relationship.
Franchise[]
The Karate Kid[]
Johnny was the best student of John Kreese's Cobra Kai Dojo and the leader of the gang of bullies representing the dojo, as well as the ex-boyfriend of Ali Mills.
Throughout the film, Johnny and his gang torment and bully the protagonist Daniel LaRusso, including when the latter was riding his bike home: During this, Johnny and his gang taunted the latter for visiting the Cobra Kai dojo — and to supposedly "give him his first lesson" — they physically forced Daniel's bike into veering off the path and down the adjacent hill (causing the bike to careen into a few rocks and flip, causing Daniel to fall off and tumble into the ravine, bruised). But when Kreese told Johnny to "sweep the leg" in order to beat Daniel at the All-Valley Karate Tournament, Johnny gives Kreese a frightened glance (while also possibly realizing that Kreese had gone too far, and thinking in his head, "Sweep the leg? What is wrong with you, Sensei Kreese? That is illegal and dirty!").
After he lost to Daniel, Johnny, while in tears (possibly because of his loss and feeling remorseful for his treatment of Daniel), shows respect to Daniel and gives him the first-place trophy, gaining a new respect for his rival.
The Karate Kid Part II[]
At the beginning of the second film, while Johnny was perfectly fine with winning second-place, Kreese was not as he broke the trophy in two after Johnny called him a sore loser. After an argument between Kreese and Johnny (which Daniel and Miyagi take notice of), Kreese violently berates Johnny (including putting the poor then-17 year old boy in a chokehold), but Miyagi stops him. After that, Johnny and the rest of the Cobra Kai students left Kreese in the parking lot, now seeing Kreese for the kind of man he really was.
The Karate Kid Part III[]
Johnny appears in a montage at the beginning of the movie. It can be implied that Johnny and his friends left Cobra Kai, following Kreese's actions at the beginning of The Karate Kid Part II, because in the present day, Kreese does not have any students left.
Cobra Kai[]
Season 1[]
Thirty-four years after losing the tournament, Johnny is down on his luck, drinking beer and watching TV while struggling to work as a home-improvement worker. However, he is fired after an argument with a persnickety customer. When he meets his new neighbor Miguel, he is hostile with him. He later beats up a group of bullies (whose ringleader was Kyler) who were harassing Miguel [as he and they reminded Johnny of him in his younger days] who asks him to teach him karate. At first, Johnny refuses, but then changes his mind and decides to train him. He reopens the Cobra Kai dojo and managed to have it reinstated, which causes his rivalry with Daniel to get reignited (as the latter remembers from personal experience what Cobra Kai is like, the students (except for Bobby Brown) were nothing but aggressive bullies, who seemed to enjoy torturing others into giving them what they wanted). He (Johnny) later gets more students at the Cobra Kai thanks to Miguel, who fended off Kyler and his gang (who were humiliating Samantha, Daniel's daughter) in the lunchroom, and this inspired "losers", "nerds", "uncool" people, and bullied students. He teaches all of them to strike first, and act mercilessly to their opponents, just like Kreese taught him in 1984. While Cobra Kai was initially banned from the All-Valley Tournament because of the actions of Kreese, Terry Silver and Mike Barnes in 1985 (Karate Kid 3), Johnny convinces the committee to reinstate Cobra Kai.
During the tournament, his students Miguel and Eli (Hawk) make it to the semifinals, but Johnny's son Robby also makes it to the semifinals. During the semifinals, Hawk commits an illegal move by kicking Robbie in the shoulder while they were not fighting, which got him disqualified. Johnny got angry at Hawk for what he did and was worried for Robby. In the final round, Miguel attacks Robby's shoulder which is dislocated thanks to Hawk, and even yanks his shoulder after losing the point. When Johnny tells him not to fight dirty, Miguel said there is nothing dirty about winning, which makes Johnny realize what he has turned Miguel into. While Miguel wins the tournament for Cobra Kai, Johnny is upset at what happened, and even apologizes to Robby for it as well.
While drinking his sorrows upon looking at the winning trophy, Johnny is visited by an arriving Kreese, who has bigger plans of putting Cobra Kai up to the top, by all means, much to Johnny’s distress. (Kreese manipulates Johnny, by claiming to be sorry [maybe faking it] for attacking the latter, for getting second place).
Season 2[]
Johnny, like his old rival in The Karate Kid Part III, is shocked that his old sensei is still alive. However, he is still angry at Kreese and even attacks him. Despite struggling at first he is able to get the better of Kreese, but decides to show him mercy to him as he does not want to be him. At the dojo, he scolds Miguel and Hawk for their cheap moves at the tournament, announces that cheating will no longer be tolerated, and strips all his students to white belts, and ordering Miguel and Hawk to do 50 push ups.
After Kreese fixes his second place trophy from the 1984 All Valley tournament and apologizes to him for the way he acted, Johnny forgives him and allows him to co-teach with him at the dojo.
When Miguel and Hawk find out that Robby is Johnny's son, they believe he is being hard on them because they cheaply attack his son. Johnny reveals that, while Robby is his son, he does not tolerate cheating [possibly ashamed of how Kreese's teachings turned him into an aggressive bully, back in 1984] and tells them to mind their own business. However, he soon tells Miguel how badly he screwed up with Robby, and that what he likes the most is training him. He even advises him not to be merciless like him, as he paid the price for that.
Under Johnny's nose, Kreese poisons several of Johnny's students minds, particularly Hawk. When Daniel confronts Johnny about destroying his dojo, Johnny tells him he does not know what he is talking about as he had nothing to do with that, and is unaware Kreese ordered Hawk and some other of his students to do this. Johnny then tries to get one of them to reveal that they destroyed the dojo by punishing them but no one cracks. Johnny, however, gets a phone call, which forces him to leave for the day, but not before telling Kreese to run the dojo (which unknowingly allows the latter to turn Cobra Kai into the vicious and ruthless dojo it was in 1984).
Johnny goes to a hospital, where he meets former Cobra Kai friends Bobby and Tommy and soon Jimmy. Tommy has been diagnosed with a terminal illness (likely cancer) and is in hospice. Knowing that Tommy won't live much longer the four spend the day hanging out so Tommy can spend his last day having good memories. Tommy last speaks to Johnny before his death the following morning. Johnny is saddened by Tommy's death.
After discovering that Kreese has been poisoning his students minds and turning them into corrupt and vicious human beings, an angry Johnny forces Kreese to leave the dojo for good.
Johnny develops feelings for Miguel's mom Carmen, but is upset when she is seeing someone else. However, after he notices that her date is both unfaithful and only interested in her physically, he beats him up and forces him not to see her again. He then asks her out and the two go on a date. However, when Daniel and his wife Amanda LaRusso come to the same restaurant and have to sit with Johnny and Carmen both Johnny and Daniel are unhappy. At first they brag about their dojos, but after some time the two bond, joke around and appear to be getting along. When Daniel reveals that Robby, who is staying with him, has enrolled him in school, Johnny appreciates what he did.
After Johnny comes home from his date someone knocks on his door. He thinks it's Carmen at first, but when he opens the door he is surprised to see Robby and a drunk Sam (Daniel's daughter). He allows them to spend the night. He tells Robby the following morning that he will have to tell Daniel what happened, but Robby tells him not to and that he will take the fall. However, when Daniel knocks on Johnny's door, Johnny opens it. Daniel asks if Sam is there to which Johhny replies that both Sam and Robby are there and he tells him to calm down which infuriates Daniel. Unhappy with his attitude Johnny shuts the door. Daniel then kicks the door opened and the two have a brief fight which is stopped by Robby and Sam. Daniel angrily takes Sam home.
Johnny takes Robby to school which the latter appreciates. After Miguel is rushed to the hospital as a result of Robby kicking him off a railing at school Johnny goes to the hospital where Carmen blames him for Miguel's injury and tells him she does not want to see him again, and Johnny himself feels guilty.
Johnny goes back to the dojo where he sees Kreese training several of his students. Kreese tells him he and a landlord made an agreement for him to take full ownership of the dojo. Several of Johnny's students are now training with Kreese, and Hawk blames him for Miguel's injury [as the latter showed mercy to Robby, which inadvertently allowed Robby to kick him off the railing]. Johnny admits that he made a grave mistake. He angrily leaves the dojo, but not before telling his old sensei that if he desperately wants possesion of the Cobra Kai dojo, then he can have it. He then storms out whilst John Kreese trains the kids.
Johnny, upset that Kreese now has the dojo, goes to the beach where he angrily throws his phone and then walks away. Unbeknownst to him Ali whom he sent a Facebook message to has sent him a friend request.
Season 3[]
Johnny is drowning his sorrows and drinking at a Bar while watching the TV news which explains the massive brawl that had occurred between Miyagi Do and Cobra Kai at West Valley High and that the Police are looking for Robby Keene who has gone missing and is on the run for 2 weeks now after kicking Miguel off a balcony, which led to Miguel being in a coma for 2 weeks. They explain that Robby Keene has been expelled from West Valley High along with a girl who couldn't be named as well ever since for starting the fights. When a Spanish Goon takes the TV remote and change it to a football game, Johnny demands them to change it back, forcing the goons to leave and the Goons make fun of Miguel by calling him a coma kid that nobody cared about. Angered, Johnny goes and attacks them but is beaten up and sent to a cell for the day. A police officer asks him if he is Robby's father and Johnny says yes and explains that Robby is a good kid, but the Police call Robby a delinquent and Johnny becomes frosty and tells the Police Officer to back off. Johnny is released with probation and first to go see Miguel who is unconscious and hears what John says. Johnny is kicked out of the hospital and comes back soon under disguise with a blood injury and goes to see Miguel again.
Johnny goes back to his flat and sees Daniel waiting for him and Daniel kindly asks him to help him find Robby and Johnny agrees. They go to find Robby and they go see Trey and Cruz who have been sent to prison probably after the Beach Club theft and after fighting Daniel and Robby, Johnny slaps Cruz two times which causes him to bleed and Trey in fear explains that they use to scam out people at Tech Town and they leave after and Trey calls Cruz a softie. Johnny and Daniel eventually find Robby at Shannon's rehab place and sees him eating a sandwich and a cup of water. Daniel and Johnny arrange for him to be turned in and Dawson and Jackson arrive and arrests Robby who tries to run off. Robby cut ties with Daniel and tells him to never see him again and the same with Johnny. Shannon watches in tears to see her son be taken to Custody/Juvie, but Daniel and Johnny do this for the greater good and causes a good outturn for Robby who only had to serve a few days/weeks and that Robby could've gotten a year if they didn't do this. Johnny then goes to Bobby and interrupts his sermon at the Valley Church and Bobby sweeps his leg for that. However, Bobby helps him get back on track and do positive things such as focusing on both Robby & Miguel the most. Bobby tells him that he will accompany him to visiting Robby in Juvie because of Johnny being on probation and Bobby tells him to help Miguel and Robby be civil towards each other. Bobby helps fund Miguel's surgery to walk again and Johnny asks his arrogant selfish stepfather Sid Weinberg to fund for Miguel's surgery, but Sid refuses and makes rude comments about him so Johnny walks out and steals two expensive award trophies from Sid's Lorimar Television as a way for how Sid abused him when young and how selfish and heartless he is. Johnny goes to sell the two expensive trophies to a Pawn Shop and gets the exact money for Surgery costs for Miguel along with extra funds from Car-Wash sales which raised $2,500.
The next day, Bobby sees Robby and Robby waits for Johnny for an hour, but Johnny doesn't show up after being requested by Miguel grandmother to stay and pray with them, causing Robby to angrily leave. Johnny goes to Robby's CS area where they serve food to people who need it and they attempt to talk through things, which leaves Robby spilling the soup and Shawn laughing at him. Robby cuts contact with Johnny. While at a bar, he encounters Kreese, who tells him he only took away the dojo from Johnny because he was going soft, and actually requests him to com back to the dojo. However, Johnny refuses because he knows Kreese is not to be trusted.
Johnny and Miguel go out like father-son and gets Miguel to take pictures of him for Ali. With Johnny's help, Miguel's legs get better and he is eventually able to walk again. Johnny then goes on to open up Eagle Fang Karate (later merged to Miyagi-Do) and does lessons in the park with Bert, Miguel and Mitch as the first students after Kyler kicks Mitch out and Kreese kicks out Bert for his love of pets and sees it as weakness. Johnny and Kreese face off at the park, where Kreese once again attempts to convince Johnny to come back to Cobra Kai, which Johnny refuses, causing Kreese to walk away. After learning that The All Valley has been cancelled, Johnny along with Daniel and Kreese attend the council meeting to attempt to reenlist the tournament, but Johnny's and Daniel's issues with Kreese, gives the judge a reason to ban it. However, after Miguel and Sam plea to let the tournament continue, the judge allows it. That night, Carmen knocks on Johnny's door and tells him thank you for helping Miguel walk. Carmen kisses Johnny and they end up sleeping together at Johnny's flat.
The following morning, he and Ali reunite and have Cheeseburger and Chips together then go to the Arcade then go to a party with Amanda and Daniel. After the party he goes to Carmen's house to tell her how he truly feels, but after seeing blood on Miguel's face, Johnny goes to Cobra Kai and wants to defeat Kreese once for all, but sees Kreese teaching Robby to forward strike. Johnny beats up Kreese and punches him the same way Hawk did to Brucks, but Robby pushes him and starts a fight, but Johnny pushes him to a metal wardrobe, rendering him unconscious. Feeling guilty, Johnny apologizes and tries to wake Robby up, but Kreese attempts to strange hold and kill Johnny, but Daniel saves him and fights Kreese. When Johnny sees Daniel beating Kreese, he gives him an approving nod to continue, or finish him off, but the fight is halted when Miguel and Sam arrive. Kreese then sets the All Valley tournament between Miyagi Do's/Eagle Fang's and Cobra Kai. Robby gets up and tells Samantha, Daniel, Johnny and Miguel to leave. The following morning, the Eagle Fang and Miyagi Do dojos have officially merged, and all the students are training at Miyagi Do, under Johnny's and Daniel's co leadership.
Season 4[]
Despite agreeing to team up, tensions still exist between Johnny and Daniel over how to train their respective students. Furthermore, Johnny becomes jealous when Miguel enthusiastically pairs with Daniel to learn his style of karate, and fears losing his best student to Daniel after losing his estranged son Robby to Kreese and Silver. Eventually, the tensions explode into a karate match between Johnny and Daniel, which ends with no clear winner, and the two cease working together and decide to train their dojos separately after another argument breaks out due to the aftermath of an incident with Cobra Kai shaving off Hawk's mohawk at the tattoo shop. Despite this, Johnny secretly trains Sam, as she has taken a liking to his style of karate.
During this time, Johnny starts taking his relationship with Carmen more seriously, which leads to some awkwardness with Miguel. While Kreese has agreed to not provoke Miyagi-do and Eagle Fang before the tournament, new Cobra Kai co-sensei and Kreese's old friend Terry Silver lures Johnny into an ambush at the old Cobra Kai dojo to demoralize Eagle Fang. In the ensuing fight, Silver handily defeats Johnny but Kreese intervenes and orders Terry not to finish Johnny off. Furious with Kreese for not letting him brutalize Johnny, Silver gets drunk and severely brutalizes former Cobra Kai student Stingray after he makes another request to join Cobra Kai despite being rejected by Kreese.
At the tournament, most of Johnny's students are defeated by both Miyagi-do and Cobra Kai with the exception of Miguel. During the match between Miguel and Hawk (who has joined Miyagi-do), Miguel is seriously injured after spraining a muscle and Hawk wins the match by default when Miguel refuses to fight any further. After Hawk defeats Robby in the All-Boys tournament and Sam makes it to the overall finals, Daniel approaches Johnny and they agree to team up against Cobra Kai after noticing that both students have used both styles of karate with success. However, Cobra Kai ultimately defeats both Eagle Fang and Miyagi-do after Tory defeats Sam, allowing Cobra Kai to win the most points overall. Unbeknownst to anyone except Tory, Silver secretly bribed the referee to rig the final match in Cobra Kai's favor. Meanwhile, Silver has gotten Kreese arrested by framing him for the near-fatal assault on former Cobra Kai student Stingray.
In the aftermath of the fight, Robby tracks down Johnny and expresses remorse for their animosity due to Robby being disturbed and horrified by new Cobra Kai student and his pupil Kenny's increasingly violent behavior, particularly Kenny's vengeful actions against Daniel's son Anthony and Kenny's sadistic reaction to his final fight with Eli, and the two reconcile. However, Johnny is shocked to learn that Miguel has traveled to Mexico City to track down his estranged father, a move spurred by Johnny having revealed to Miguel his own father walking out of his life as well as Miguel being devastated when Johnny accidentally calls him Robby due to being drunk and depressed following the aftermath of his altercation with Terry Silver. To this end, Johnny promises Carmen that he will find Miguel and bring him home.
Season 5[]
Accompanied by Robby, Johnny travels to Mexico where he eventually convinces Miguel to come home. Johnny is also excited upon learning that Carmen is pregnant with his child and works towards building a family with her. Johnny also refuses to have anything more to do with the fight against Cobra Kai. After Amanda leaves Daniel over his obsession with Silver, Johnny makes him to see how his obsession is affecting his family and the two men commiserate on their past, even joking about how they might have gotten over their rivalry a longtime ago if they had just fought it out with each other. Johnny has to deal with rising tensions between Robby and Miguel before, inspired by his conversation with Daniel, he has them fight it out, leading to a reconciliation and Johnny revealing to Miguel and Robby that Carmen is pregnant with a new baby.
Johnny subsequently agrees to rejoin the fight against Cobra Kai, but a dejected Daniel wants nothing more to do with it after being severely beaten by Silver due to being depressed about his resentment towards Silver straining his relationship with Amanda and his family. With the help of the Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang students and Robby, Amanda and Sam are able to change Daniel's mind, knowing that if they have any chance of defeating Silver, they need Daniel's leadership. In tandem with Daniel's former rival Chozen Toguchi, the two dojos begin working together again, but much more seamlessly. Daniel and Johnny are able to get Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang into an elite international karate tournament, the Sekai Taikai, but they discover that they must choose a single name for their combined dojos for the tournament instead of being Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang.
After a drunken night out together, Johnny, Daniel and Chozen are confronted by Mike Barnes, Silver's former student who hijacks their limo and furiously demands retribution for Silver burning down his furniture store in retaliation for him helping Chozen and Daniel. Barnes convinces Johnny and Chozen to attack Silver at home and bring an end to him, though Daniel is hesitant to join and ends up stranded in the middle of nowhere after Barnes drives off with Johnny and Chozen. The trio are quickly outmatched when Silver's henchmen appear. In the ensuing fight, Barnes is knocked out while Chozen is severely wounded by Silver after being striked with a katana. Silver leaves his henchmen to deal with Johnny as he makes his way to the Cobra Kai dojo. Johnny is outmatched by Silver's henchmen, but being motivated by the sight of his unborn child's sonogram, he defeats Silver's henchmen, eventually winning the fight, aided at the last minute by a recovered Barnes.
Johnny then drives Chozen and Barnes to the Cobra Kai dojo just in time to witness Silver's arrest on a number of charges thanks to his and Daniel's students exposing Silver's bribing of the tournament referee and Stingray's change of heart. Johnny reunites with Carmen and celebrates Silver's downfall with Daniel, congratulatinghims former rival on finally taking Silver down. The two are then informed by a detevtive that Kreese has been killed in a fight in prison, but are unaware that Kreese faked his death and escaped.