Miguel Diaz has been through a hell of a journey so far during the series of Cobra Kai.
In the span of a year and a half, he has won a karate tournament, had multiple love interests,
fell into a coma, woke up, re-learned to walk, and managed to beat down his old bully.
While you can say as of now that Robby is the dark side of the coin,
Miguel represents the light side of that same coin, and is Robby's parallel in many ways.
One thing to note is that Miguel is a hybrid character, as he is a blend of both a modern
day Daniel LaRusso... and a modern day Johnny Lawrence. How will this play into the future?
This is my theory of Why Miguel Diaz is the Chosen One, including his comparisons to Daniel
and Johnny from the original trilogy, and what kind of role he will play in Season 4 and beyond.
Let's recap on what we know about Miguel so far. At the start of Season 1, he moves next door to
Johnny Lawrence from Riverside with his mother and grandmother. After buying medicine for his
grandma, Miguel accidentally ruins Kyler's plan of buying alcohol, and is bullied by his gang,
until he is pushed into Johnny's car which causes Johnny to intervene. Miguel asks Johnny to teach
him, but Johnny declines his request at first, but then changes his mind after his car is ruined by
the daughter of his rival Daniel LaRusso, Samantha LaRusso, and agrees to teach Miguel the way of
the fist. Miguel befriends Eli Moskowitz and Demitri, and has more run-ins with Kyler's gang,
most notably at the Halloween Party where he attacks Kyler but is overrun by them due to his
lack of variety of moves and offense. Carmen, Miguel's mother, forbids Johnny to come around
and is against Miguel learning karate, but changes her mind when Johnny promises to be there for him.
After training for a while, Miguel also recruits Aisha and a major turning point of Season 1
is when he stands up to Kyler again for bullying Samantha, only this time Miguel quickly decimates
them and is awarded a gi by Johnny. The fight with Kyler goes viral and suddenly Cobra Kai is filled
with students. At first, Johnny loses more and more students because of how harsh he is towards
them, until Miguel reminds Johnny that he himself was bullied once, and Johnny reforms his ways.
During this time, Miguel and Samantha became friendly and go on their first “not a date,”
thanks to Johnny's advice, (and who also benefits from Miguel's advice when appealing towards the
All Valley), and Johnny soon discovers that Miguel is dating a LaRusso. Johnny goes on
to tell his side of the story (leaving out details such as Johnny himself was once a rich kid and how
he did attack Daniel, as noted in Season 3), and advises Miguel to be careful, noting that Daniel
stole his girl. These words go on to haunt Miguel, as Daniel advises Sam to stay away from anyone
affiliated with Cobra Kai, leading her to hide her relationship with Miguel from her Dad. Miguel
attempts to introduce himself to Sam's family, but leaves when he sees Robby, Johnny's son, eating
dinner with her family. When Johnny confronts Daniel about his wrecked car, Amanda, Daniel's
wife, finds out that Samantha was involved by affiliation with Yasmine wrecking Johnny's car,
and grounds her from using her phone, compounding the issue of Sam not being able to contact Miguel.
Miguel grows increasingly more paranoid and angry, and when Sam finally reaches the party with the
help of Robby, Miguel is drunk at this point and refuses to listen to reason, shoving Robby
and aiming to hit him but hits Sam instead. At the All-Valley, Miguel takes the lesson of “No Mercy”
to heart and goes on to use his anger to help him power through the tournament, making it to the
finals against Robby. The score is tied 2-2 when Miguel exploits Robby's injured shoulder, against
the advice of his sensei, and wins the tournament. However, it is a hollow victory as he realizes
that Sam is nowhere to be found. Season 2 opens up with Johnny reprimanding Miguel and Hawk for their
behavior at the All-Valley, and Miguel begins to change his ways, while at the same time trying
to reconnect with Sam to no avail. Johnny explains to Miguel that he learned the lesson between mercy
and honor the hard way, and wants Miguel to be a better man than he ever could be. Miguel goes on
to also form a relationship with new student Tory, who convinces him to go all-in to show his ex what
he can't have. While Johnny is away, it is also Miguel who protests against Kreese's teachings
of the true ruthlessness of Cobra Kai, and is also upset to find out that Hawk was the one
who helped trash the Miyagi dojo, and stealing the medal of honor in the process. Miguel wins
and finishes Hawk, leading Johnny to ban Kreese from the dojo, and after this incident stays
on the right path for the most part. At Moon's party, Miguel ends up kissing Sam who is drunk;
prior to this she just found out that Miguel did return the medal of honor and Robby lied about it,
as they had just started their relationship and Robby did not want Miguel to score points
with Sam. However, Tory sees them kiss, and this leads to an all-out brawl at the school
between Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai. Although Robby was attempting to mediate between Tory and Sam,
because Miguel sees Robby kicking other Cobra Kai members, Miguel intervenes and begins to fight
Robby, who accuses him of taking advantage of Sam. After putting Robby into a lock that could easily
break his arm, he remembers the lesson taught to him by Johnny and apologizes to Robby. However,
Robby is unfocused and unbalanced, and then attacks Miguel in anger and sends him over the
railing, severely injuring him and putting Miguel into a coma. Season 3 opens up 2 weeks after this
fight, where Miguel finally wakes up out of his coma and asks his mother where Johnny is.
Johnny finally is able to visit Miguel while he is awake, and Miguel tells him not only that he may
never be able to walk again, but also asks him why this had to happen when he showed mercy, to which
Johnny has no answers for. Miguel yells at him to leave, and is visited by many friends, including
Hawk and Sam over the next few days before his surgery. After the surgery is a success,
Johnny pledges to help Miguel recover, using a variety of interesting but failed tactics to try
to get Miguel to walk. It is finally when they visit a Dee Snyder concert where Miguel regains
strength in his legs, giving Miguel a reason to recover through having passion for life itself.
After a heated argument where Miguel convinces Johnny to realize that he is a sensei, Miguel
is finally able to stand up on his own and soon returns to school, re-gaining the ability to walk.
Miguel also confronts Hawk about betraying Johnny, and goes on to train under Johnny's new dojo,
Eagle Fang Karate, alongside old teammates Mitch and Bert. At the city council meeting discussing
the cancellation of the All Valley Tournament, all hope is lost until Miguel, along with the
help of Sam, makes a passionate speech about what karate did for him in earning confidence,
standing up to bullies, and learning discipline, thanks to the help of his sensei. Miguel also goes
on to formally meet Daniel, and hears his side of the story, noting that the two are not much
different from each other. Miguel also goes along with Sam's plan to unite Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang,
until they are interrupted by the Cobra Kai invading the LaRusso household. Miguel is not at
his full strength due to just re-learning to walk, but manages to quickly perform the drum technique
and uses his momentum to knock out Kyler, also going with Hawk and Demitri to stop the fight
between Tory and Sam. Miguel, along with Hawk, Bert, Mitch and others, go on to train under
Daniel and Johnny, in preparation for the next All-Valley tournament where the loser leaves town.
What makes Miguel an interesting character, as stated above, is that he is a hybrid of
both Daniel and Johnny from the first Karate Kid film. Let's take a look at of his similarities
to Daniel. Both move to Reseda from different locations, Daniel from Newark, New Jersey and
Miguel from Riverside, California. Both are saved from by bullies by someone who goes on to be their
eventual mentor and father figure, and in turn, are also the sons that each mentor never had.
Daniel is the son of Lucille LaRusso, a working single mother, much like Miguel is the son of
Carmen Diaz, with the key difference that Carmen's mother is in their lives as she lives with them.
Neither Daniel or Miguel are natural athletes at first, it is only through the rigorous
training that they go on to be skilled at Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai karate, respectively.
Daniel questions Mr. Miyagi's training, as on the surface he seems to be doing mundane chores
(but is in fact learning through muscle memory), much like Miguel questioning how him helping fix
up the dojo has to do anything with karate. Miguel also stood up to the bully, Kyler,
out of respect for the girl, Sam, much like Daniel did with Ali and Johnny, only Miguel was
successful by the time of his 3rd encounter, and was able to defeat him and his gang.
This is what Daniel would've been like if he had successfully sought revenge on his tormentors.
In a call back to Karate Kid III, Miguel learns to kick and break 3 boards on a dummy,
much like Terry Silver training Daniel in the ways of Cobra Kai. Both are thought to be the
protagonist of their respective sagas – and are also nice and friendly to those around them,
for the most part. Miguel sports very similar injuries after the Halloween fight,
much like Daniel does when he and Miyagi visit Cobra Kai after his Halloween fight. When their
senseis need them to focus, Miyagi yells 'SHOW!,' much like Johnny is always yelling 'QUIET!' When
Daniel has his initial run-ins with Cobra Kai, notably after being forced to go down a hill and
wanted to throw away his wrecked bike, he states that he just wants to go home while his mother
protests that fighting does not solve anything when he wants to learn more karate. Miguel has
a similar conversation with his mother, when she forbids him from learning more karate from Johnny,
and when she goes to pick up him from school, he says “anything to keep me away from karate...
I just want to go home.” Both become skilled in a very short amount of time – the tournament takes
place on December 19th for Daniel, and depending on when exactly the Halloween Party takes place,
trains at the end of October/early November, so at most he's been training for a month and a half.
Miguel initially starts learning from Johnny when school starts up,
and it is not until after his Halloween fight with Kyler that he becomes very skilled,
even more so at the All-Valley on May 19th. So for Miguel, depending on when the lunchroom fight with
Kyler takes place (which is either during late December or after, as we see Christmas decorations
in Miguel's apartment), at most he's been training for 4 months for the All Valley Tournament.
Speaking of the brawl with Kyler, he punches Kyler right in the nose, very much like Daniel
punching the guy's nose in the club in Karate Kid III. Both Miguel and Daniel have very prominent
training montages in their first movie/season, and both have very memorable songs in those
respective montages. Mr. Miyagi gives dating/love advice to Daniel in both the first two movies,
much like Miguel asking for advice from Johnny when he wants to take Sam on their first date,
which is strikingly very similar in terms of shots and music choices to Ali and Daniel's
first date in the first movie. Another similarity is that neither have a car of their own on the way
to this date, as Daniel's mother drops them off and Sam drives Miguel to Golf N' Stuff.
When they go on to compete in their respective All-Valleys, the tournaments take place on the
19th, each tournament is their first, and they go on to win that respective tournament. Daniel
ends up having conflict with Ali, as he jumps to conclusions that Johnny was dating Ali after all,
much how Miguel jumped to a conclusion of Sam not answering her phone and afraid to introduce
Miguel to her family because Miguel assumed she was dating Robby. Daniel drinks with Mr. Miyagi
to celebrate Miyagi's anniversary, while Miguel celebrates with Johnny after his date with Sam
and Johny's meeting with the All-Valley Conference. To end off their similarities
between each other in Season 1, they compete in a tournament in their first season/movie,
and beat an opponent with the Crane Kick. As we move into Season 2, Miguel has a new love interest
in Tory, much like Daniel goes on to have a new love interest in Kumiko in Karate Kid Part II,
and Tory introduces her name with a y, much like Ali did with an I back in Karate Kid 1.
Miguel learns the lesson between mercy and honor, and goes on to use this as part of his character,
similar to how Daniel would in Karate Kid I and II. Miguel learns values through his hard work,
such as his training with the cement truck, much like Daniel learning through his training and
life lessons from Mr. Miyagi. The scene where Johnny talks with Miguel in the diner is very
reminiscent to the scene of Daniel comforting Mr. Miyagi after his father passes away,
as both are dealing with or still dealing with trauma of said situation. The Karate Kid Part
II is noted for being based more around Mr. Miyagi, including his love interest in Yukie,
which is something similar in Season 2 where Johnny forms a romance (although short-lived)
with Carmen. Miguel is noted for apologizing to his rival Robby during the school fight where he
has the upper hand, mirroring Daniel apologizing to Chozen before their fight to the death.
Daniel and Miguel have always stood by their masters in many situations as needed,
as Daniel was the son Miyagi never had and Johnny was the father Miguel never had.
Both of Daniel's love interests in the past are no pushovers by any means, much how Sam is trained by
her father in the ways of Miyagi-Do to stand up for herself. Daniel is noted for having his first
kiss that was also served as a way to make up with Ali, much like Miguel and Sam's kiss in Season 2.
Needless to say, Miguel had a very rough day at school, much like Daniel did after his beach fight
with Johnny. Miguel's legs were not only affected by the fall he took, but also prior to that,
was injured in a call back to the same move Johnny used on Daniel in their match during the
All-Valley. Miguel also had Robby pinned in their fight and was in a position to severely injury
his opponent, much like Daniel after beating Chozen with the Drum Technique. With Johnny's
successful therapy, he was able to help Miguel rehabilitate and gain the use of his legs again,
much how Miyagi healed Daniel before his match in the finals and his foot in Karate Kid III. When
Miguel throws away his crutches in the dumpster, it is a callback to Daniel throwing away his bike
after Johnny runs him off the hill. After leaving Cobra Kai and siding with Johnny, it could be said
that Miguel is the star pupil of Eagle Fang, is now a loner against the gang of Cobra Kai,
much like how Daniel was against Johnny and all of his friends. Both students were advised against
competing in a second All-Valley, one being due to fear of injury and the other to know true honor.
Much how Miguel is facing Kyler again in Season 3 as he did with Season 1,
Daniel has to re-face Cobra Kai in Karate Kid 3, the rival dojo from the first film.
Last but not least, Daniel and Miguel both use the Drum Technique to save their life.
Now while he has all those comparisons to Daniel, he does have quite a few similarities to Johnny.
The first would obviously be that they both trained in Cobra Kai, and were star pupils
of their respective generations. Johnny was very aggressive in his heyday, much like Miguel is now
and especially seen during the tournament. Johnny passes down his skeleton costume that he wore back
in '84, and Miguel goes on to wear this during the Halloween Dance. When it comes to the Cobra
Kai creed, it is very evident that both Johnny and Miguel follow this to a t and become very serious
in moments where they exhibit the said sayings of the creed. Johnny has a gang of friends with him
in Cobra Kai, much like Miguel does in the modern era. Both have a best friend and right hand man,
for Miguel it is Hawk, while for Johnny it could be arguably Bobby or Tommy. Johnny, as mentioned
above, gives Miguel advice about taking his date to Golf N' Stuff for a perfect first date,
much how he did with Ali back in the day and recounts this experience during the episode
Molting. During their very first encounter together, Johnny shoved Daniel for butting in,
much like Miguel shoved Robby for also butting in. When competing during the All-Valley,
Johnny leads the train of Cobra Kai chanting “Cobra Kai, win or die!”, much like Miguel does
but instead they simply repeat “Cobra Kai” over and over. Both Johnny and Miguel beat a skilled
opponent in the semi finals, Johnny beating Darryl Vidal and Miguel defeating Xander Stone,
and both kick each of their opponents out of a flip and score the final point with a spinning
back/round house kick. Miguel stands on the left side of the mat during his first match,
semi match, and final match, much like Johnny does in his match against Daniel in the finals.
They both become aggressive and unsportsmanlike during their final matches, when Johnny
does the illegal knee attack and Miguel for yanking Robby's shoulder in between rounds,
and in this match, they both land their first point via the stomach, and also land another
point by striking their opponent on the ground. A very similar music cue is heard when Kreese tells
Johnny “No Mercy,” much like Miguel telling Johnny the same thing before stepping back onto the mat.
Johnny goes on to ultimately lose Ali (although they were already broken up) to Daniel during the
tournament, much how Miguel loses Sam eventually to Robby, as she had already left the tournament.
Miguel and Hawk go on to be reprimanded by Johnny after the tournament, much how Kreese reprimands
Johnny (although in a harsher manner) after his tournament. Johnny goes on teach Miguel the lesson
between mercy and honor, as it was something he learned the hard way in his match with Daniel,
and Miguel goes on to experience this lesson first hand when facing Robby. It is also noted
that Miguel was initially corrupted by the Cobra Kai creed of Strike First, Strike Hard, No Mercy,
much how Johnny was back in the 80s, but is put on the right path by Johnny. Lastly, Miguel trips
Robby during the school fight, much how Johnny tripped Daniel back in the 80s on the beach.
Here is why I believe Miguel is the chosen one out of both of these generations, and what kind
of role he will play in Season 4 and onward. The first thing to note is that where Robby now
represents the wrong path in the realm of Cobra Kai, Miguel is the opposite side of the coin,
where although he was corrupted at first, managed to get back on the right path thanks to Johnny's
help and now further help from Daniel going forward. Miguel, like Robby, has a tendency
to learn things very quickly, compared to his predecessors. Johnny was a skilled martial artist,
but had been training consistently for 5 years when he faced off against Daniel,
and Daniel trained for maybe at most 1 month and a half to 2 months in Karate Kid I,
and under a year in Karate Kid II, and about the same amount of time in Karate Kid III,
as Karate Kid III begins right when Daniel and Miyagi return from Okinawa. What makes
Miguel different from Daniel in this aspect is that he mastered these techniques even quicker
than Daniel – Miguel learned the Crane Kick and performed purely by imitating Daniel, and learned
the Drum Technique when it was showed to him ONCE, while Daniel had spent most of the movie (or
rather all summer) trying to figure out how to do the technique and also throw a counter punch in,
which is something Miguel had not learned from as Sam showed him only how to evade punches with it.
Where Robby may have had a natural advantage due to his genetics, Miguel's consistent hard work
and determination he put to his training when he could train has always paid off,
and thus has made him a very skilled fighter. Much like Johnny and Miyagi, Miguel is very forward
thinking at times, as he keeps an open mind and often finds a solution that may not be readily
present in front of him – for example, although he did not know Johnny was bulled in his youth,
it is his plea where he tells Johnny that he does not understand what it's like to be them is what
gets Johnny to remember his past and be able to connect with his dojo in that he was like them,
and will help them shed their skin into something greater. Another example is giving Johnny the
idea to appeal to the All-Valley Conference, even giving him an anger management technique
that proves successful and thus gets Cobra Kai reinstated when Johnny speaks from the heart.
Miguel's open mind is what allows him to not only reform his ways, but also allows him to listen to
both Johnny and Daniel's side of the story, and tries to understand both of their perspectives.
It's very interesting to note in the Season 3 episode, The Good, The Bad, and the Bad Ass,
during the city council hearing for the All-Valley Tournament, Kreese, Johnny, and Daniel are unable
to provide a reason to the city council to stop them from canceling the tournament,
as the council describes their outbursts are reasons why it should be canceled. It is a
lost cause until Miguel steps forward and is the one to make a passionate speech, along with Sam,
that the All-Valley should be there to help fight the bullies of the world, and how karate made
him more confident, athletic, and taught him many values, thanks to studying under Johnny.
Another interesting detail is in this episode where the 3 dojos respond with the “yes sensei,”
Miguel is in the middle, as he represents the balance between of all 3 dojos,
good natured but tough if he has to be. Miguel's fighting style has also evolved over time;
during notable fights in Season 2 such as his first encounter with Tory and his duel
with Hawk at Coyote Creek, he practices more defense and strikes only at the right time,
compared to Hawk for example who fights aggressively and constantly presses the attack.
I suspect that with Daniel's training, his defense could be even better and Miguel could be deadly
in the All-Valley Tournament if he further hones his mix of offense and defense. In what could be
foreshadowing to his fight with Kyler at the end of Season 3, when Sam visits him in the hospital
in the episode, “Now You're Gonna Pay,” she tells him if “anyone can beat the odds, it's you.”
This is exactly what happens during the December 19th fight, as Kyler purposely singles out Miguel
because he knows that Miguel just relearned to walk, much how he was always picking on people he
knew that would not be able to defend themselves. Even though he was at a severe disadvantage,
Miguel was still able to power through and still overpower Kyler, showing how formidable he is
even when not at 100%. Miguel is also very loyal to Johnny, as Johnny was always there for him,
and has this same loyalty to his friends around him, much how Miyagi notes that Daniel is the
same way when getting to know him. Much how they did at the council meeting, Miguel was also able
to unite the dojos with the help of Samantha, and even during his confrontation with Robby,
he still does not hold any ill will and it could be implied that he forgave Robby for injuring him,
despite Robby not apologizing for injuring Miguel. Now training under two senseis, I think Miguel
will be even a greater fighter and individual than he was before, as he is the perfect balance of
character qualities from both Johnny and Daniel. While I would be OK with somebody else other than
Miguel winning the tournament for example Hawk, we cannot overlook that Miguel is the perfect blend
of hero that Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang needs, and in my opinion, is the chosen one of this story.
Let me know what you guys think down below - what do you see Miguel's future looking
like Season 4 and onward? If you enjoyed the video, please consider liking, subscribing,
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Thanks for watching, stay beautiful, stay awesome, we'll catch you around next time.