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| “ | Well, just wait. Watch what I do to Robby in the finals. | „ |
| ~ Miguel Diaz expressing his desire to beat up Robby in the final of the tournament. |
Miguel Diaz is one of the two main protagonists (alongside Robby Keene) of the YouTube Red/Netflix series Cobra Kai.
He is the son of Carmen Diaz and Hector Salazar, Johnny Lawerence's top student and surrogate son, Robby Keene's former rival-turned-stepbrother, Samantha LaRusso's current boyfriend, and Tory Nichols's ex-boyfriend. Initially a scared and meek boy who was bullied at high school, Miguel became Johnny's first student at the reopened Cobra Kai dojo, as well as his best. However, he gradually becomes corrupted by his newfound confidence and power, striking a rivalry with Robby. Despite his use of dirty tactics at the All Valley, he is brought to the good side by his master again.
He is portrayed by Xolo Maridueña.
History[]
Background[]
Miguel was born in 2002 in Ecuador to Carmen Diaz and Hector Salazar. His father was a criminal with connections to a drug cartel. This dangerous lifestyle forced Carmen, who was pregnant with Miguel, to flee from Ecuador and take refuge in the United States.
Season 1[]
Miguel and his family moved into the apartment complex where Johnny lived at. Miguel attempted to introduce himself to Johnny, but Johnny rebuffed him.
Later, while visiting the mini mart to pick up some Pepto Bismal for his grandma, Miguel accidentally outed Kyler and his cronies as not being college kids when they went to go buy beer. Miguel attempted to apologize, but Kyler and his crew began shoving him around, taking his Pepto Bismal and pouring it on his head as well as nicknaming him "Rhea" (short for diarrhea). However, after Miguel was shoved onto Johnny's car, Johnny stepped in and beat up Kyler and his gang.
Inspired by Johnny's karate moves, Miguel encouraged Johnny to open up his own karate dojo and teach him karate. Though Johnny initially shot down the idea, he later changed his mind and opened up his Cobra Kai dojo in the mini-mall, inviting Miguel to be his first student. The dojo would later receive a second student when Aisha Robinson joined.
When Kyler began harassing Sam LaRusso and lying by saying she performed oral sex on him, Miguel stepped in and told him to back off. Kyler responded by challenging him to a fight, at which point Miguel used his karate training to beat down Kyler and his three cronies, impressing Sam and the whole lunchroom. The fight was filmed and uploaded to YouTube where it went viral, resulting in tons of publicity for Cobra Kai.
Miguel eventually began dating Sam, though their relationship became strained by Sam's father Daniel LaRusso's dislike of Cobra Kai. Later, after getting drunk at a Cobra Kai party in a canyon, Miguel got into a misunderstanding with Sam where he assumed Robby Keene was her boyfriend and accidentally hit her while trying to attack Robby, resulting in their relationship breaking up.
Miguel and Cobra Kai later entered into the All Valley Under 18 Karate Tournament which Robby also entered into as an independent fighter. Miguel and Robby would face off in the final round, though by exploiting an injury Hawk had inflicted on Robby out of turn, Miguel was able to beat Robby and win the tournament for Cobra Kai. As the announcer went up to give Miguel the first place trophy, Miguel dedicated his victory to Johnny Lawrence and Cobra Kai.
Season 2[]
However, Miguel and Hawk were both punished by Johnny for using a cheap shot to win and made to do fifty push-ups on their knuckles. Though initially still hung up over his break up with Sam, Miguel eventually began dating a new Cobra Kai student named Tory Nichols.
After Hawk attacked and vandalized Miyagi-Do and took Mr. Miyagi's medal of honor, Miguel fought Hawk to recover it so he could give it back to the dojo. After defeating Hawk, Miguel took the medal and went to the LaRusso residence to give it back, only to be greeted by Robby. Miguel handed Robby the medal and told him to let Sam know he had given it back, though rather than do that Robby simply dropped the medal in the yard and did not inform Sam that Miguel had returned the medal.
Later though, Miguel and Sam were able to make amends at a party hosted by Moon after Aisha told Sam that Miguel had in fact returned the medal. Sam went to apologize to Miguel for not realizing he was the one who returned the medal and the two ended up kissing, which was secretly seen by Tory.
On the first day of school, Tory went to attack Sam for kissing Miguel. Miguel raced to get to the confrontation to stop her and came in just as Robby Keene had stepped in in an attempt to resolve the fight. However, assuming Robby was trying to harm Sam, Miguel tackled him to the ground. As the whole hallway erupted into fighting, Miguel fought Robby, who was angry at him for kissing Sam and believed he was taking advantage of her. The fight eventually led onto the second floor of the school where Miguel managed to defeat Robby and pin him down. Remembering a speech by Johnny to not confuse "mercy" with "honor", Miguel let Robby go and told him "I'm sorry". However, still bitter over Miguel kissing Sam, Robby attacked Miguel and knocked him over the railing, sending him plummeting to the ground below. The impact of the fall severely injured Miguel and sent him into a coma, necessitating him to be hospitalized.
Season 3[]
In Season 3, he is in a coma after the fall at the end of Season 2. He eventually wakes up and his mother and grandmother are faced with medical bills they can hardly afford. Johnny comes to visit him but he is angry at him and blames him for the state he is in, he eventually reconciles with him and works with him to get his legs moving again.
He has irregular methods of physical therapy such as standing out of his wheelchair to grab a swimsuit magazine, and setting a fire under his wheelchair. These methods are unsuccessful but he slowly develops his healing process by tapping his foot at a Dee Snider concert and walks with a harness. He eventually fully gets his legs moving and convinces Johnny to open up a new karate dojo called Eagle Fang. He gets back together with Sam and meets Daniel.
At the LaRusso household for a Christmas party, Cobra Kai attacks the Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang students and Miguel faces his former bully Kyler, a new Cobra Kai. With Kyler's improved fighting skills and Miguel still recovering from his injury, Kyler has the upper hand for nearly the entire fight but Miguel gets enough motivation to regain his kicking and knocks him out with two kicks and one flipping knockout punch. Now with LaRusso and Lawrence's dojos allied against John Kreese, he is a star student of both.
Season 4[]
Miguel continues training under both Daniel and Johnny, while also continuing his relationship with Sam. Throughout their training, he begins to develop a close friendship with Daniel, much to Johnny's envy. He also learns that Johnny and Carmen are dating, which later leads to friction between him and Johnny as he starts treating him differently. After Eagle Fang and Miyagi Do split, Miguel joins Johnny and Eagle Fang. He later helps to recruit new female students into the new dojo, despite its failure. During the junior prom, Miguel and Sam become distracted with Tory and Robby. When he returns home, he finds a drunken Johnny who explains that he loves Miguel as a son, leading Miguel to shed a tear of happiness that changes to dejection and heartbroken as Johnny calls him Robby instead. During the semi-finals, Miguel faces off against Hawk who is going by Eli again and has joined Miyagi-Do. He gains the upper hand but pulls a muscle in his back and falls to the ground as he was about to knock Eli out with his kick. Ultimately, he decides to steps down from the match due to him believing there was nothing worth in fighting there anymore and leaves before the finals, but not before he reconciles with Sam. In a letter to Carmen, he reveals that he is heading to Mexico to find his biological father in order to get the answer to who he is and his place in the world. However, unknown to Miguel, Miguel's father is oblivious to his existence as Carmen had fled when she was still pregnant and is a dangerous man. As Miguel boards a bus, he is unaware that Cobra Kai won the tournament, due to Tory beating Sam.
Season 5[]
After the 51st All-Valley, Miguel arrives in Mexico. He approaches local surfers for directions but the surfers take his backpack. After one of them gives him directions, Miguel buys his backpack and map. Later, he arrives at a bar but realizes that it was the wrong guy and leaves. After having a conversation with Sam, he sees a man and begins to follow him. He talks to a kid who runs away from him. After he tries to get his soccer ball, Miguel saves him. Hector thanks him and he invites him over for dinner.
The next day, Miguel helps Hector make breakfast. Hector is happy to learn that Miguel is an All-Valley champion. Later, he invites him to go to an MMA event. When Carmen calls him, he chastises her for lying to him about Hector. He tells her that Hector is a good man and that he missed out on everything because of her. At the MMA event, Hector gets mad at for Miguel for not telling him he's from America but apologizes to him after he comes clean. After, Miguel calls his mom and tearfully tells her about how he learned of Hector. Later, Johnny and Robby find him and Miguel and Johnny hug, though is upset when he sees Robby.
While Eli is getting a new tattoo, Miguel recaps his road trip back home with Johnny and Robby. When he tells him and Demetri about Sam's messages, the binary brothers are nervous for him. Demetri brings him to a jewelry store to buy something to make up with Sam. When he notices an octopus necklace, he is sad that he can't afford it. He meets with Johnny and Johnny says if he owns up to his mistakes, he can make things right. After Sam tells him he is breaking up with him, Miguel accepts it but when he leaves Miyagi-Do, he is heartbroken and drops the necklace.
Miguel and other the Eagle Fang and Miyagi-Do students are spending a day at the water park. When he arrives, he checks up on Sam and the two attempt to talk to each other. However, after getting into an altercation with Cobra Kai, all the students are kicked out.
One day, Johnny's attempts of having Miguel and Robby get along go bad. Inspired by Daniel, Johnny has the two fight each other to get the hatred out of them. The two end up on the second level of the apartment during their fight. After remembering the school fight, Miguel becomes enraged and attacks Robby the same way he attacked him during the brawl, which leads to him gaining the upper-hand. However, after remembering his fall, he stops fighting. Robby asks Miguel why he stopped, to which Miguel says he didn't learn karate to hurt people. In the end, Miguel and Robby finally make amends. The two hug Johnny when they learn he's going to have a baby with Carmen. After, the two have dinner at the Diaz apartment.
The Eagle Fangs and Miyagi-Do students learn a new lesson under Chozen Toguchi. Each of the students hide eggs but are picked off by Chozen. Daniel's son Anthony gets an idea to work together to hide all the eggs. The plan works and in the end, Chozen surrenders.
While having dinner at the LaRusso house, Johnny talks to Miguel, Robby, and Eli about who will be the male representative against Cobra Kai. Despite Eli losing the boys portion, Sam wins the girls division and Miyagi Fang qualify for the Sekai Taikai tournament. While attending a party, Miguel meets a girl and they make out, causing Sam to run out.
At Miyagi-Do, Miguel and Sam talk about Terry Silver bribing the referee in order to ensure Cobra Kai's victory. Later, Miguel and Sam go with Bert to confront Stingray about John Kreese's "assault", which in fact was Silver who attacked him. To explain the story, he demonstrates it with a game of Dungeons and Dragons.
To finally put things to an end, Miguel, Robby, Sam, Demetri, and Eli all go to the flagship Cobra Kai dojo with Tory to find evidence on Silver. While the binary brothers are finding evidence, the others see the Cobra Kai students attack Anthony. Miguel and his classmates are surprised when they learn that Mitch betrays the merged dojos and tipped off Cobra Kai. A fight then breaks out between Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai. Miguel takes out several Cobra Kai's and saves Robby from Kenny Payne and a few other Cobra Kais. After a long fight, Daniel finally defeats Terry. Miguel and Sam then repair their relationship.
Trivia[]
- Although, Miguel never acted as the teenage villain or supporting antagonist throughout every Cobra Kai seasons but his actions in Season 1 caused him to acting as an very aggressive character such as making verbal abuse, domestic abuse, and using unethical tactics in both Episode 9 and 10. However in Season 2, Miguel feels conflicted if he whether should adapt Cobra Kai merciless teachings or not, because Johnny scolded him for using dirty tactics in 2018 All Valley Tournament or Johnny disapproving of Miguel listening to Kreese's order to finish Hawk off at Coyote Creek.
