Kyler is one of the main antagonists of the first season of the YouTube Red/Netflix television series Cobra Kai. He is also a major antagonist in the third season.
He is a rude bully that bullies Miguel Diaz, Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz and Demetri before the former two join Cobra Kai. He is quickly defeated and humiliated by Diaz after his training with Johnny Lawrence and stops bullying him. However, after Diaz is hospitalized in a school brawl, Kyler is invited to join Cobra Kai by John Kreese, the dojo's original and ruthless founder.
He was portrayed by Joe Seo.
Biography
Season 1
Kyler is first seen with Brucks and two other of his friends trying to buy beer from a mini-mart. When Miguel Diaz unintentionally tells the store clerk that Kyler and his friends aren't old enough to buy it, Kyler and his gang begin bullying Miguel, taking the Pepto Bismal he bought for his grandma and dumping it on his head, as well as nicknaming him "rhea" (short for "diarrhea") for buying it.
After shoving Miguel up against Johnny Lawrence's car, Johnny decides to step in, telling them to back off. When Kyler makes fun of Johnny, Johnny fights off the gang, using his karate moves to easily beat all of them down. However, the fight is soon broken up when the police arrive and arrest Johnny.
Kyler later begins dating Sam LaRusso and ends up being invited to have dinner with her family by her father, Daniel LaRusso. At the dinner, Kyler tells Daniel about what happened at the mini-mart after Daniel asks him about his black eye, but spins it to make Johnny seem like the aggressor, leading Daniel to go confront Johnny about it at the latter's Cobra Kai dojo.
Sam eventually breaks up with Kyler when she discovers he has been bullying Miguel and after he tries to touch her in the theater where they went to see a movie. To get back at her, Kyler spreads rumors that she had given him a blowjob after the two saw the movie. After Kyler makes fun of Sam at lunch, Miguel gets up to go and confront him. Kyler and his gang challenge Miguel to another fight, but with the training he received from Johnny at the Cobra Kai dojo, Miguel is able to beat down Kyler and his three cronies in front of the entire cafeteria. This serves as classical conditioning, and now Kyler and his gang stay away from Miguel.
Kyler later appears again accompanying Yasmine and her friends when they go down to a canyon to set up for her birthday, only to discover that Cobra Kai had gotten there first and thrown a party. Yasmine tells Kyler to go down and force the kids to leave, but after sighting Miguel and Hawk, Kyler gets scared and suggests they go somewhere else, for fear of suffering another beatdown by Miguel or Hawk.
Season 2
Kyler doesn't make any appearance nor is mentioned throughout Season 2. It can be assumed that while he keeps going to the school, Kyler and his gang no longer harass Miguel and his friends due their karate skills. That said, it's unknown if Kyler witnessed the fight between Tory Nichols and Samantha which escalates into a full fight against Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do students which ultimately results in Miguel's hospitalization.
Season 3
Kyler and Brucks are shown being recruited by Kreese to Cobra Kai. Upon seeing Hawk, they realize that they bullied him in the past, and immediately mock him. Tryouts take place, Kyler is chosen to take on Mitch. He successfully beats him with ease and finishes him with a right hook to the face. However after beating Mitch, he is shown to be frightened of Hawk, when the latter brutally beats up Brucks. He is still shown to be a bully, as he draws a dick on Demetri's cast and smacks his head. Upon invasion at the LaRusso house, he fights Miguel. Kyler had the upper hand on Miguel for most of their fight, due to Miguel recently coming off a major injury which occurred in the season 2 finale, but Miguel eventually defeats and knocks out Kyler after regaining his confidence.
Personality
Kyler is a sadistic, mean and cruel bully who takes pleasure in tormenting others, often laughing and chuckling while bullying somebody, which was displayed during his encounters with Miguel, Demetri, and Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz. He can be considered to somewhat be a sociopath as he displays little to no qualms or remorse over harassing others.
He does appear to love Samantha LaRusso at first, but after she dumps him after he harassed her while on a date and because she saw him bully Miguel and the others, he ruins her popular reputation as revenge, further showing that he is a bully and bad person. His bullying comes to an end when Miguel beats up him and his gang.
Beneath the bully demeanor, Kyler is actually a coward and a hypocrite. After Miguel beat him and his gang up, he began hesitating to come near him, which was shown when he walked away after noticing Miguel one time. He displayed this again when after Hawk beat up Brucks, he was shown to be frightened, looking down to the ground with fear when the latter gave him an intimidating glare after doing so.
In season three, however, it is revealed that he hasn't changed at all, clearly joining Cobra Kai so he can continue to torment others, most notably Demetri. He is brave enough to fight Miguel during the invasion at LaRusso's house, but ultimately loses again.
Trivia
- Despite having a small role in the series currently, Kyler's actions are bad enough to make him the main villain in the fist half of season 1.
- Kyler's bullying leads to Eli Moskowitz becoming Hawk and equally as bad of a bully as him.
- Despite having a small role in the second half of season 1 and no role in season 2, his bullying in the first half of season 1 indirectly leads to all the negative events that occur in the first two seasons. So, Kyler can be seen as the root cause of Daniel LaRusso's and Johnny Lawrence's rivalry resurfacing, Eli becoming Hawk and a huge bully, Cobra Kai being repopularized, John Kreese returning and corrupting the students, Daniel re-opening Miyagi-Do Karate, the Cobra Kai and Miyagi Do rivalry, and the major school brawl that resulted in Miguel being hospitalized, caused Kreese to take Cobra Kai and Johnny's students away from him and forced Daniel to shutdown Miyagi Do, so in a way, Kyler can be seen as the central antagonist of the show.
- According to Joe Seo, Kyler will return in season 4.
